“karma is more than the roaring ocean itself,”
Over the last weeks, the Kogi state media space became inundated with the reports of unwholesome activities by the Pastor of New Jerusalem Deliverance Ministry, Peter Michonza, who allegedly distributed supposedly spiritual water likened to a bulletproof to his congregants; and without medical qualifications, operated a labour ward in his church where he conducted delivery for pregnant women.
According to the Commissioner for Health, the action was not a witch-hunt on the ground of the spiritual activities, but to carry out the directive of the Governor to seal up the place being used for quackery, resulting in deaths of pregnant women, babies and others.
Meanwhile, digging deep into the life of the self-acclaimed representation of God, ebirareporters.com reports that Pastor Peter first made publication in August 2020 when his first wife, Mary David went running to seek help from the Director General of the Kogi State Government House, Alh. Umar Oricha Shuaibu.
Before he became known as Peter Michonza, he was called Peter Adeiza Onsachi and got married to Mary in May 2014 at a church close to Federal College of Education, Okene named FADEM which he was attending. The wedding which was supposed to customarily hold at his wife’s Redeemed Christian Church of God, got moved to that of his choosing after Peter reportedly domineered over her and her parents.
For Mary, the man she married was the Chief Executive Officer of Angelina Theatre Troupe located in Okene; into film and music production, a celebrity who plaited his hair; the son of a renowned Medical Practitioner father known as Dr. Onsachi, and a quiet mother who reportedly saw visions for people. The mother would later become blind, as grapevines linked different stories to her blindness. He was known as a multi-talented entertainer who sings, dances, acts and plays so many musical instruments. What was however unclear is the veracity of his claims that he graduated from the University of Ibadan where he studied Theatre Arts.
The first wife, Mary, reeling out her story to Alhaji Shaibu, accused the husband of physically molesting her in her mother’s house barely two weeks into their wedding over little misunderstanding. She said she was 19 years-old, and swayed by her love for her soon-to-be celebrity husband, she forgave him with the intention of finding in him, a replacement for her deceased father.
She revealed that she was made to sleep on the floor at his mother-in-law’s house on the night of their wedding, and that was the beginning of her troubles. Crying profusely, she said Peter pummelled her over every argument to the dismay of their neighbours.
While eight-months pregnant with their son named Justice, Mary said her former husband started dating one of their Maids of Honour, named Rita, and kept late nights. Mary said she braced up in her pregnancy to confront him on why he no longer cared about her, but she got the beatings of her life in the presence of his mother, sisters and members of his entertainment troupe.
“He tore my clothes for the whole world to see my nakedness,” she said.
According to her, every intervention was rebuffed by Peter, and on one occasion, her mother and Pastor who came to settle them were driven away by her then husband.
She said their less than two years old marriage ended on a night when her husband woke her up to inform her he was getting married to her friend and maid of honour, Rita. Mary added that her former husband forcefully took their son from her into his new marriage while he was seven months old, and it took the intervention of the court to recover his son. She said while the boy was with him, he developed a health challenge known as contraction on his both hands. After recovering her son, the onus was on her to find solutions as the father would not take responsibility for his welfare.
Recalling her post-divorce ordeal, Mary said she had sought the help of many people who gave her conditions of submitting her body, a decision she concluded she will never indulge despite her sufferings.
Now a student of Microbiology at the Federal University of Lokoja, and also into catering service, Mary found favour in the hands of the DG who paid for her son’s surgery and promised her a job.
From not too far-off, she would later hear that her former husband became a prophet of a Church with Rita, and his mother as the pillar of the New Jerusalem Deliverance Ministry.
The Media Unit of the DG, in a statement announcing Mary’s visit in 2020, noted that “karma is more than the roaring ocean itself,” and two years after, Peter may have found his karma as the government would subject him to face the law.
The Okene Local Government Chairman, Abdulrazaq Muhammad said on the day he led the state government delegation to Peter’s church, “the building which was originally designed to be residential, was converted to a prayer house which had a special room for illegal child deliver, an OPD section, a pond, about four rooms where over 50 young girls were camped and two metally deranged women were also chained in an open apartment among other discoveries in a filthy environment.”
The Chairman had also disclosed that the Pastor was being detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department in Lokoja for further investigation, from where he would be brought back to Okene for prosecution.
“As a responsible government, we shall continue to do our best within the ambit of our laws to protect the lives of our people and will move against anyone or groups irrespective of position, religion or political affiliations,” he assured.
