A Nigerian pastor has landed in trouble after a female friend who visited
him died after a having sex.
When 52-year-old Yemisi John packed a few clothes and personal effects and
embarked on a journey from her home in Akure, capital of Ondo State, little did
she know that she had set in motion a sequence of events that would put her
family through months of trauma.
Her disappearance was a mystery for five months until detectives attached
to Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), head- ed by
DCP Abba Kyari, traced her footsteps to her last known whereabouts: Summit
Road, opposite Radio Nigeria, Benin City, Edo State capital. It was the home of
a pastor.
Enter Pastor Joseph Kofi Martey of City of Fire Ministry who is now the
primary suspect. He didn’t give the police too much trouble. He confessed that
Yemisi died in his house hours after they had sex.
Afraid of being lynched by neighbours, he claimed, pushed him to dump her
body by the roadside. As a preacher, Martey knew a lot about the wages of sin.
He knew he must account for his sin, and given the gravity of the crime, he
appeared resigned to the gloomy fate ahead.
The police, however, are not buying his confession hook, line and sinker.
Detectives are saying the story is not as simple as narrated by the pastor.
Relatives of the missing woman at first reported the matter to various
police stations in Ondo state.
On November 5, they wrote a petition to the Inspector General of Police
about their daughter who went missing since she left her home on July 28, 2019.
When they were directed to IRT office in Osogbo, Osun State, all they could
tell detec- tives was that a certain Pastor Kofi who was Yemisi’s Facebook
friend had chatted with her days before she left the house, but when contacted,
the man claimed they were just friends on Facebook.
The Osogbo IRT team, led by CSP Akindele, dug deeper and discovered that
the pastor was more than a Facebook friend.
Yemisi had called him severally on
the day she allegedly left her home in Akure; he was in contact with her when
she arrived in Benin City; also Facebook chats and text messages showed that
they had agreed to consummate their relationship, prompting Yemisi to volunteer
to visit Martey in Benin.
The evidence was indicting enough to warrant arresting the pastor. IRT
operatives subsequently tracked him down to his residence in Benin City where
he was arrested days later.
Martey, 42, confessed to the crime, claiming he dumped the corpse by the
roadside but the corpse is yet to be found .
In an interview, Pastor Martey gave a background of how he arrived at his
present Golgotha.
His story: “My father is a Ghanaian, but I was born and raised in Offa,
Kwara State. He was a pastor and because of that, I was drawn towards serving
God. As the child of a pastor, I was always in the church for one programme or
the other. At a point, I wanted to stop because they were gradually turning me
into a pastor. Unfortunately, I became sick and was at the point of death, when
one of the prophets, who is close to my father, said that I must be a pastor
for the rest of my life.
“After my secondary education, I relocated to Lagos and started to learn
how to make shoes. I also found a good church and became a member. I started
with Life and Life Christian church where I attended Bible school and was ordained
a pastor. While in the Bible school, I got a job in fruit juice processing
company where I served as a marketer.
He further claimed that he moved from one job to another until 2013 when he
met his wife and they got married. But she lost her first pregnancy “because
she had excess sugar in her system.”
He continued: “I treated her and a year later she became pregnant again.
She was able to give birth but her sugar level was still high. We started
moving her from one hospital to another till her family insisted that we should
relocate to Edo State. Her family helped to pay for the apartment. I joined
City of Fire Ministry where I was made an assistant pastor. I could not work
because of her ill health and the little baby that needed attention. We barely
survived on the little allowance that the church was paying me. When her
illness became worse, her family took her away. She died months later.”
Months after the death of his wife, Martey decided to join a Facebook group
known as Single Parents which was where he met Yemisi. “I know her as Titilola
John; it was at the police station that they told me that her name is Yemisi, “.
From casual chatting, they became friends. “We also exchanged phone
numbers. I have written a lot of Christian books, but I need an expert to edit
it for me. She suggested that I should allow her do it free of charge.”
He suggested it was the woman who pushed for a relationship: “She was based
in Akure and had been disturbing that I should visit her. I told her I did not
have much money to send to her. She then insisted that she would borrow money
from a friend and travel to Benin. She kept saying I should allow her to be
part of my life and help me take care of my son.
“On July 28, she called me that she was already in Benin and cannot trace
my house. I was surprised but because she was already in Benin I decided to go
to the bus stop and pick her up. She was carrying a small bag. As soon as we
got home, she took her bath and relaxed. I prepared Indomie noodles for her and
she ate a little and drank malt.”
He also tacitly blamed the de- ceased for initiating what happened
afterwards. “At about 9 pm after praying, she asked me if I was just going to
allow her sleep without touching her. I told her I need to remarry and have
children––but she was 54 and above childbearing age––but I told her I cannot
marry her. She kept pleading that we were a good match, arguing that I am a
writer and she was good at editing and she could get pregnant by the grace of
God.
“She pleaded with me that since her husband left her, no man had touched
her and that she needed sex. I agreed. We made love. It did not last more than
20 minutes because I was tired. She was satisfied with the little time we
spent. We slept off and around 4 am.”
Martey recalled being terrified to discover the woman whom he had sex with
some minutes ago was lying dead on his bed.
“I tried to wake her up so that we would pray. Her body was cold and when I
turned her around there was foam on her mouth,” he narrated.
“I panicked and did not know what to do. I have not lived for long in that
area. If neighbours discovered that a woman died in my house, they would kill
me before I get to the police station. I am the only one living in the
compound, so no one saw us when we walked into the compound. I decided to
dispose her body before the day break. I dragged her from the bed to the street
and dumped her by the roadside.”
When he came out at about 5am, he saw people gathered around the corpse
snapping pictures.
“They wondered who dropped the dead body there. I walked past them pretending
to be an onlooker. After wards, I went back to my room, knelt down and prayed.
At 6 am, I came out again and discovered the body was gone.
“Three days later, I received a call but refused to pick it because I was
scared the caller could become suspicious about my shaky voice. No one called again
till three months later when I received another call from her family member.
They asked me if I knew who Yemisi was and I said yes. They asked if I had seen
her recently and I said no. I told the caller that we were just Facebook
friends and I have never seen her in person.”
“I couldn’t even tell the General
Overseer of the church because I was scared that they will condemn me,” he
said, “Everyone will say that I committed fornication and this was the way God
chooses to punish me.”
He added: “I never had peace of mind. This was why I kept her phones and
bag; my mind told me that one day, police might come for me.”
Martey insisted he did not poison her “because I ate from the food.”
He said: “If I killed her, will I stay in Benin and wait for police to come
and arrest me? Police should go back to that street and ask them if a certain
corpse was dumped on our street around June. How I wish that police can find
the corpse, this is the only way that I can prove that I am innocent. I have a
lung disease, so I cannot even have sex with a woman for more than 20 minutes.”
Once more, he admitted his guilt: “I have sinned against God that is why he
is punishing me like this.”
Nonetheless, the police did not believe his confession is the end of the
investigation.
“We are still looking for her (Yemisi) dead or alive. Whatever he is saying
is his own side of the story. It’s only when the body is found and an autopsy
performed that we can ascertain the circumstances surrounding her death,” a
police source claimed.
“Finding the corpse will confirm or refute his claim. It is possible that
she was murdered,” said the source.