Overseer of Christ Praying Assembly (CPA),Rev. Emeka King, was one of
those who testified against him before an Ikeja High Court in 2006.
the time, Rev. King was on trial for the murder of one of his members,
Miss Ann Uzor and attempting to murder five others by pouring petrol on
them and setting them ablaze.
Miss Chizoba informed the court that she was taken to the church in 2000
by her parents believing it to be a Christian home but that her parents
stopped coming to the church six months later while she lived with Rev.
King for seven years.
In her words, Miss Chizoba, testifying at
the court said: “When I came to live with the accused (Rev. King), he
told me that I would be his permanent maid and that I would agree not to
marry. He said anytime I wanted to serve him I must be stark Unclad
which I did. No pant, no bra, I would be completely Unclad before him
and I did this not once, not twice, but for several years. He also
ordered me not to tell any member of my family where I was living. He
gave me a ring which I always put on to indicate that I am his permanent
maid and all this he made me to put into writing. I am a member of the
Lord’s army and we bully people, putting fear into them and molesting
them.
“The accused(Rev. King) is a very violent person, he would
beat us mercilessly and as a result we always have wounds on our bodies.
He called himself god, the owner of the universe and could do anything.
We know this is not so but out of fear we could not challenge him. On
the 22nd July 2006 the day of the fire incident, a sister named Kelechi
came to call me from the Boys Quarter of the accused’s house where we
were staying that the accused wanted to see me.
“When I got
to him he did not even allow me to kneel down as we usually did when
talking to him before he started beating me with stick, rod and anything
he could find. I started crying, shouting and begging him not to kill
me. It was then I noticed others who were there; Cosy, Chiejile,
Jessica, Ann, Vivian and Kelechi. He accused me that I lied to him that
Chiejile did not sleep with me whereas Chiejile had confessed to him
that he slept with me. But Chiejile never did he only said that so that
the accused will not kill him.
“He said he would kill all of
us. He then asked Kelechi to go and bring fuel and matches but when she
brought it he told her that the petrol was not enough and that she
should go and bring more which was brought in a very large plastic
container. He then marched us out of the room saying he did not want to
burn his rug and chair. While we were outside his room but within the
church compound Kelechi poured petrol on us on his orders and he struck
the first match which did not catch fire.
“When he struck the
second match we were all engulfed in fire but I did not know how I
managed to escape from there and I ran back to our apartment. When I
noticed that Ann had been taken to the hospital, I ran out in my night
gown and I never came back to the church. I came out of the place by the
grace of God, I am free now, I am no longer under the spell of the
accused person.”