Deliverance: Pastor Beats Accused Witch Woman To Death In Lagos Church

When Tawakalitu Rabiu was tying the nuptial knots
in the traditional way with her love, Aro Razak some
three and half years ago, parents, families, friends
and relatives wined and dined, as the love birds'
faces shone with rapturous joy. Little did they know
that all that would end in tears, suspicion and
bitterness, leaving behind an acrimony that would
last a long time. Tawakalitu died last November after
a prolonged illness and under strange circumstances.
Her death has strained the relationship between her
family and her husband's in whose custody she died
after her mother was denied access to see her for a
month.
Mrs. Oluranti Adesina, Tawakalitu's mother told
Saturday Sun that Razak, his father and the leader of
a white garment church where her daughter died,
know something about the young woman's strange
death.
Grief-stricken and bitter over her daughter's sudden
death, she said: " Razak came to take her away from
me, saying that he didn't want me to come and see
her, except her elder brother and one of my sons-in-
law. He said he took her to a white garment church
where my daughter was being attended to by his
father and leader of that church. The strange thing is
that my daughter was there for a month and he
insisted I must not come to see her. My daughter
couldn't even see her child. I bought her a cell phone
with which she could call me but I gathered that her
husband took the phone from her, and removed the
sim card in it.
"He assured me that he would ensure that she gets
better, saying we should allow him to take care of her
as she is his responsibility. But I suspected that
whenever my son-in-law and my first son went to see
my daughter, they only come to tell me what Razak
and his people tell them about my daughter, not
really what they find out about her.
"Each time I asked Razak about my daughter, he
would say I shouldn't be worried, that once she is
well, she would come and see me. I want to believe
my daughter suffered in great pains before she died
in that church, this is because my son once came to
tell me that he caught the church leader once while
he was using cane to flog her. He said that the
church leader held a cane while my daughter was
protesting that she be allowed to rise up and rest her
back on the wall. She was on a drip then. My son said
he had to stubbornly carry her up to rest her back as
she demanded. I wonder what the cane the church
leader held was meant for? Is that treatment or ill-
treatment?
"My daughter eventually died in that church. It was
when she died that I eventually found out that the
church they took her was right here in Lagos.
Meanwhile, Razak was telling lies to me that he has
been taking her to different churches outside Lagos. I
later found out that the church in which my daughter
died is owned by Razak's father and his friend, who is
in charge of the church."
The agonizing mother of Tawakaliyu recalled the
relationship between her family and her son-in-law
before the sickness of her daughter and her eventual
death.
According to her "My daughter married Razak some
three years ago. The young man put up a good
character then, I didn't know he was pretending. My
husband was still alive then. Why I'm suspecting that
Razak would know something about my daughter's
death is that it was after she married Razak that she
began to fall sick almost every week. She wasn't a
sickle cell patient and I'm sure that if she has been
getting sick so often during their courtship, Razak
wouldn't marry her.
During their marriage, Razak was always reporting
my daughter to people whenever they quarreled.
"Another strange thing I noticed that arose my
suspicion is that my daughter used to fall sick
whenever it was close to her menstrual period. It is
also strange that Razak's father seems to exert
undue influence on him against my daughter. When
they had their baby, Razak was having a
misunderstanding with his father and it was so
serious that the old man didn't attend the
christening ceremony of the baby and things went on
smoothly between the couple but when the crisis
between Razak and his father was settled, he
stopped being well behaved to my daughter and me.
He was always doing his father's bidding concerning
my daughter.
"My daughter used to complain of feeling weak from
inside of her and I spent so much taking her to
several doctors, even native doctors who asked us to
make several sacrifices but nothing happened. But
when we got a place where we were assured of her
getting well if we could spend N50,000 and we told
Razak, he offered to come and take her away. That
was late October. He called to tell me that she had
passed on late November."
She disclosed that when she discovered that her
daughter was being flogged with cane in the church
under the guise of delivering her from craft, she
made attempts to save her life by taking her away
from them but was resisted.
"When my son caught the pastor of the church using
cane to threaten my daughter, he came to tell me
that he wanted to take her away from the church and
I accepted. He went with some other young men but
they didn't allow them to take her. Instead, my son
said the pastor told him to leave Tawa and go and
take care of himself. The pastor told my son that
'your father who has been protecting you is dead.
Leave Tawa alone and go and take care of yourself
and others.' I know that this could mean that they
want to harm the remaining children, so I want the
Nigerian people to compel Razak's father and his
pastor to write an undertaking that they won't harm
my other children. They know our names and have
our pictures in their hands, they should please do no
harm to me and the other children", she added.
She said the body of Tawa after death showed signs
of serious beating. Her words: "I couldn't see
Tawakalitu's corpse but those who saw her came to
confide in me that she looked horrible in death. They
said the unpleasant sight of my daughter's corpse
told them that something fetish could have killed
her."
Ademidun Adesina, Tawakalitu's younger sister had
tears in her eyes when she told Saturday Sun what
her family encountered when they wanted to bury
her sister. "Razak didn't want us to bury my elder
sister in the house he built. Before we took her body
there for burial, he had instructed the land
speculators not to allow us but when we told the land
speculators the circumstances leading to my sister's
death, they turned against him and allowed us to lay
her remains to earth there. They just packed into the
house when my sister died, in fact, it wasn't up to
two weeks they packed into the new house. Now, the
house has been locked up, not even Razak could live
there", she stated.
Razak's story is slightly different when he spoke to
the reporter on phone. Saying he couldn't have killed
a woman he loved to get money, he challenged his
in-laws to use anything to punish the killer of
Tawakalitu. "A woman I loved so much and did the
major things that needed be done to marry her, is it
possible for me to kill her? No!. That is why I told my
wife's people that they should do whatever they
could do to deal with whoever is behind the death of
my Tawa", he said.
Giving his own account of what led to his wife's
death, Razak explained that "the sickness started
when my wife had the first pregnancy and continued.
I remember that a man of God once instructed us
that my wife should desist from going to her family's
place too often. But she didn't heed that advice. But
eventually, she gave birth to the baby but after that
her sickness became too often. We were taking her to
her family and other places for treatment. Later she
had a second pregnancy and once her legs were
stolen and we took her to her father's place for
treatment but that didn't really help. At the hospital
we were once told that it was high blood pressure but
they couldn't cure it as they referred us to another
one.
"There was a time we took her to a church where
they assured us that she would be well if we bought
a goat and slaughter it for the treatment. My family
had to tax us to get the money but while we were on
our way to get the goat, the people called us on
phone to come back, they said that they couldn't do
the sacrifice again since her mother was around. The
pastor didn't tell us the reason for calling off the
treatment but gave an impression that it was
because of my mother-in-law.
"After that encounter, we tried several other places
where we spent money but nothing happened. Then
we resolved to take her to my dad's church and
insisted that her mum shouldn't see her. There was a
time her elder brother wanted to take her away from
there but she said she didn't want to leave as she
was getting better."
In what appeared as a game of passing blames, the
widower fingered his mother-in-law as the one
behind the daughter's problems. "On a certain
Sunday morning, a man came to me as I was going to
work he said that what was responsible for my wife's
sickness is diabolical and sounded a note of warning
that she would not make it. I was afraid and I called
my dad but he calmed me down, saying no evil
would befall Tawa.
"Then as usual, my mother-in-law began to call me.
She was always monitoring my movements.
Sometimes, she would say I was telling lies about my
movements. When my wife was going to die, she
thanked all us with her, saying she was very grateful
for our efforts to make her live but that some wicked
people were too stubborn to let her live", he added.

Sent From David Aniemeka