Pastor Chris Okafor, the hugely popular founder and Senior Pastor at Mountain of Liberation and Miracle Ministry aka Grace Nation has been making headlines in recent weeks. Controversial actress, Doris Ogala, had ensured he would constantly be under the spotlight by hurling one damning allegation after another at the usually very quiet and private man of God who had often shied away from the media. The allegations generated tremendous controversies which later spiralled into Pastor Chris Okafor’s past dealings with women, including details of his first marriage that collapsed amidst infidelity claims. Okafor had gone on to apologise to Doris Ogala, the church and to everyone who felt wronged or disappointed one way or another by the entire saga.
Shortly after he made the public apology, Pastor Chris announced he was going on a retreat with his newly wedded wife, leaving the church in the hands of his deputies. Upon his return, he held his first service at the church and it was a grand affair. Contrary to reports that the controversy that engulfed the pastor may have reduced the large membership of the church, but that was not the case. If anything, the congregation appeared fuller. The church rallied round their spiritual father and gave him a befitting reception back to the pulpit. It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise when Pastor Chris Okafor agreed to a meeting with City People last week. But he gave a caveat, “I may not be able to give you all of the details you might require because I am under strict instructions from my lawyers not to speak directly to the press. I am only willing to meet with you because we have a relationship that started long before all of this madness came up.”
After responding to a few questions over the phone, we agreed to meet in his office inside the church premises at Ojodu. There was a programme going on at the time we arrived his church. After waiting a while at the reception block, we were soon ushered to go wait for him in his office reception just as the programme was coming to an end. The crowd that milled out of the auditorium was impressive. It was finally time to meet him. We met a relaxed, assured and warm Pastor Chris Okafor waiting to meet with us. Though a little drained from the just ended service, he was still looking resplendent as always in his glittering white outfit. We were also joined by another gentleman whom he introduced to us as one of his deputies in the church. We asked him how it has been since the whole controversy broke out. Calmly, he replied: “It has been well by God’s special grace. There is nothing that has happened that has shocked me. When you carry grace, especially extraordinary grace, upon your head, there will be tribulations and accusations. But it has been well, God has taken charge of the siege by the devil and the work of God continues.”
But what really happened between him and Doris Ogala? Was there actually a relationship? Pastor Okafor promptly answered, “No relationship whatsoever!,” he said. “Listen, I am forwarding to your phone right now some documents that we are yet to make public. These are documents that show that nothing of such existed between me and the lady. I only got to meet with her while trying to intervene in a case involving her and another pastor who said she was blackmailing him or something. At that time, when she went to the press alleging I was owing her money, she never mentioned anything about us being lovers!”
“My brother, it’s all nothing but a coordinated campaign of blackmail, cyberbullying, and extortion,” his deputy joined in the conversation. “What many Nigerians do not remember is that this same lady had first come out earlier in 2025 to claim that Pastor Chris Okafor was owing her money given to him by another Pastor to give to her. The pastor in question was Pastor Jeremiah Fufeyin whom Doris Ogala was trying to blackmail because a child went missing in the children section of the church. Doris and her co conspirators now claimed the child was stolen by the church for reasons best known to her, a child that went missing right there in the presence of people in broad day light.”
:It would be recalled that Pastor Chris Okafor’s legal team had revealed that Doris Ogala initiated a campaign of harassment after a failed business arrangement in late 2024. They alleged she demanded money, and when those demands were not met, she escalated to making false criminal accusations, including involving other pastors. Doris had gone on to claim, in social media posts (specifically on Instagram), that she helped both Pastor Chris Okafor and Pastor Jeremiah Fufeyin silence cases, including allegations surrounding a missing child known as "Testimony", an allegation Pastor Chris vehemently denies. As a matter of fact, Pastor Chris had only been involved when he was informed of the blackmail situation by Pastor Jeremiah and he volunterred to intervene and speak with Doris Ogala for the very first time.
“It is unfortunate that
in Nigeria today, people now use social media as a weapon to malign innocent
persons and spread malicious falsehood against them,” Okafor’s deputy
continued. “But the good thing about all of these is that the law is taking its
course and God is on the throne. We live in a society where the laws of the
land are very clear on blackmail and cyber bullying, which is what many
Nigerians now use the social media to achieve. But the long arms of the law
will continue to hunt down every one of them.”
And how has it been
with the church since his return? Pastor Okafor speaks. “God has continued to
bless his church. He will never abandon thoe who trust in him and hold fervently
onto him. You can see things for yourself, you saw the congregation, you saw
the joy on the faces of the people. The church is getting bigger by the day, so
it can only be God.”
How prepared was he for the battle that’s erupted before him? Did he ever think, as a Pastor, he could find himself involved in controversies like this? Have there been moments he wished he were in a different profession, we asked him?
“Oh, yes, of course,you have to
expect it. As a man of God, the devil can lay siege anytime, anywhere. And he
can use anybody too to try and pull you down. But you see, God will always
fight for you, especially if he truly called you to do his work. And that is
why I am still here today despite all that may have happened, because he called
me. I didn’t just wake up one morning and said I want to be a Pastor. I think,
for me, it’s always been like, this is what you have been assigned to do, this
is what you have been destined to do. There were a lot of divine occasions
surrounding this. Before my mother gave birth to me, it was only a son my
mother had.
After the son, there were
three girls. So, there was a lot of pressure, even though my dad came from a
poor home, it was just him and his brother and his brother had seven children,
all male. So, there were pressures. They told my dad, since your wife cannot
give you another son, go and marry another woman.
My mother began to pray and
wait on the Lord. One day, they went for a crusade and an elderly prophet was
ministering. Then, he said, that woman over there, and he brought my mother out
from a mammoth crowd. He sad you have been crying, begging God for a son, she
said, yes.
The prophet said the reason
why you have not had a male child is because you’re going to have a son and he
will be a great servant of God. He will be known and God is going to use him
mightily. His name is going to be called the light of God.
The translation of my native
name means the light of God. There’s no name that was given to me by my own
parents that was of their own making, or because they felt, oh, I will like my
son to bear so and so name, no. So, that was the prophecy.
And even after that, a few
other prophets would meet her on the way and say to her, you are going to have
a son. Eventually, she became pregnant, she did not even have to go for scan.
So, when my mother became pregnant, she would go and buy this portrait they
widely believed is the picture of Jesus Christ. She bought the portrait and
would always put it on her womb, saying, Lord, since you already said I will
have a son and that he would be a prophet, I want him to be just like Jesus.
This went on until the day
she delivered me. And they were already told they would have a son whose name
shall be Ihechukwu, meaning the light of God. So, this brought about my name,
the light of God and my English name, Christian. So, the whole thing was not my
making or anybody’s making.
If I had my way, I would’ve
loved to be a business man. I was told the prophet also said I would be a
prophet and would start to prophesy from the age of eight. I remember going
with my parents to a crusade by the late Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa of blessed
memory.
Then, I received the Holy
ghost, I received our Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour as a
child. It was at that age of eight that God started to use me to speak to
people, to prophesy to people. I grew up and it continued till I finished my
primary, secondary education and went to the University.
Even in school, I was into
fellowship and all that. So, it was like Jeremiah, he said before you formed in
your mother’s womb I know who you are. I have ordained you to be a prophet. So,
my life was already tailored in that direction from the very beginning.”
WALE LAWAL (08037209290)
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