A lady identified as Kwanye Tumba has dragged the Pastor of House Chapel in Karewa, Yola north local government area of the State to the Criminal Area Court II for alleged refusal to marry her.
Kwanye told the Honourable Nuhu Musa Garta-led court that the 28-year-old pastor, Marwa Tumba, had promised to marry her, but dumped her for another girl after squandering her hard-earned money.
She told the court that she first met the pastor after a prayer meeting at Yolde Pate, a suburb of Yola South local government area in 2019, during which he told her that he saw a vision that she got a husband.
According to her, Pastor Marwa informed her that she is now his wife and immediately he asked her to start “sowing a seed”.
She explained that she started “sowing a seed” as requested by the pastor by giving him the sum of N1,000.
She said that the pastor later visited her in her apartment which she built when she was working with a non-governmental organisation, adding that she welcomed him, cooked food for him and from there, they started their relationship with a promise that he would marry her as seen in the vision.
Ms Kwanye narrated that her pastor boyfriend later told her to resign from her job and sell her house before getting married of which she accepted and tendered her resignation letter and sold the house for N500,000.
According to her, when the money of the house was paid, she immediately transferred the sum of N50,000 as tithe into the account of the pastor and used the remaining money to support the church from time to time until all the money got finished.
She told the court that it got to a point that he asked her to give him the list of all items as provided by tradition for their marriage, which she did.
Kwanye told the court that the last thing he did was to ask her to go to her parents in Michika and wait for him, promising to join her later for a proper introduction and arrangement for marriage.
She added that she spent many days in the village without him coming to do the introduction as he promised, saying when her parents discovered that it was a lie, they asked her to leave their house.
According to her, since then, he was no longer picking her calls and when she got tired and became disappointed, she left Michika to Yola.
The lady stated that to her utter dismay, she could not trace the whereabouts of Pastor Marwa again.
She lamented that he abandoned her after she had spent all her money on him, quit her job, sold her only house, and became miserable, saying that she currently lives in an uncompleted building in Yolde Pate and sells vegetables to earn a living.
When the statement of the complaint was read to the defendant upon his arraignment in court on Monday, Marwa denied the claims.
Thereafter, his counsel, M. A. Mohammed, pleaded with the court to grant bail to his client, which the court did and subsequently adjourned the matter till February 4, 2021, to enable the complainant to assemble her witnesses to prove her case.
At the court session on Tuesday, Pastor Marwa was seen with another lady whom he has engaged.