It was indeed a day of tragic at the Grace of Comfort Parish of the Celestial Church of Christ, Ile-Ife,Osun state as the Most Senior Evangelist Morris Fadehen was murdered in cold blood by his assistant, Lekan Ogundipe.
According to a report, the tragic incident happened after series of misunderstanding ensued between the shepherd and his assistant.
Before the shepherd died he had complained on several occasions to church elders about the frivolities of his assistant, his attitude to money and other things. He also vowed to stop him when he saw that all effort to get him to stop the act proved abortive.
Among such act was an assault on a prophetess Ewan when she wanted to sweep the floor after Lekan opened the church.
The mother of two who was angry with Lekan for falsely claiming he was having romantic relationship with her refused to respond to his call.
According to her “He then started to harass me. I quickly told him to stay away from me and that he should stop telling people we are dating because I was not having any intimate relationship with him besides Church issues. Rather than stop, he beat me with a cane which resulted in a fist fight until an elderly woman had to wade in and rescue me from his grip.”
“Afterwards the shepherd came around, heard the incident and scolded him for involving himself in such a mess. He even threatened to kill me before he asked to leave the church area.”
It was after the occurrence that the shepherd collected the church key from him. Unknown to him this gesture didn’t sit well with Lekan.
Lekan waited for the deceased to bow at the sacred altar to offer prayers before launching a deadly attack on his boss.
He was said to have stabbed his victim several times on the head, hit a nail through his ear and nose before finally dragging his lifeless body out of the altar, wrapped him up and then set him on fire.
Lekan while discharging this act sustained injuries on his hand, with scratches on his face while the decrease was trying to fight for life.
In other to cover up his crime, he quickly went to the founder’s house to report meeting the shepherd’s body on the floor burning.
The founder said “While I was about eating on Monday evening, one Lekan came to my house and told me the deceased body was in fire and that he was lifeless on the floor. My wife and I drove to the church with him where we found the deceases partly burnt inside the church.
“Other members of the church within the vicinity were also attracted to the scene. While inspecting the church vicinity, we discovered blood stains on different parts of his body and cuts. When we asked Lekan about the blood stains, he attempted to run but we grabbed him and locked him in my car before calling in the police.”
“We unwrapped the deceased pastor’s body and discovered that there were nails in his ear and several cuts on the head and neck before we took the body to the morgue at the Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife.”
Lekan later confessed to the police that he carried out the act because of the dispute he had with the deceased.
According to the Osun State Police Command Spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, the suspect is in police custody for further investigation.
