Pastor who allegedly got stuck in Ogun shrine finally opens up

A Pastor, Prince Adewale Fagbire, who was alleged to have been struck dumb and motionless when he invaded his community shrine at Ketu–Ayetoro in Yewa North area of Ogun state while pulling it down, has told The Nation that though the town’s traditionalists assaulted him with “charms and other fetish objects,” but he was not “harmed” at all.

Prince Fagbire, who is a Pastor at the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Ayetoro, said he actually entered the shrine, evacuated all the fetish items that were kept there and also took a position beside the entrance to it in quietness as instructed by God...

Prince Fagbire, son of the past Alaye of Ayetoro, Oba Taiwo Fagbire, who joined his ancestors in 1981 after his 20year reign in the agrarian community, said his late father and monarch, used to take him to the said shrine occasionally when he was alive.

Narrating his experience to The Nation and a handful of reporters, at the Office of the Chairman, Ogun State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Bishop Tunde Akin in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, Fagbire said he elected to “remain calm and mute” during the assault and interrogation at the shrine by the traditionalists and some villagers.

Speaking in the presence of over a dozen of Christian leaders from CAN and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria in the State, he said God instructed him to stay calm and not utter a word at the shrine.

The father of two noted that his not talking or not uttering a word on the site of the shrine had nothing to do with his being beaten with “charms and fetish objects” by the traditionalists as what they did had no physical or spiritual effects on him.

According to him, it was also not true as reported in some section of the media that the priests and custodians of the shrine upon the intervention of the Alaye of Ayetoro, Oba Abdulaziz Adelakun, treated or healed him before he could regain his consciousness.

His words: “I was conscious, physically and mentally sound, during and after the incident because God was already with me. I followed the instruction of the LORD to enter the shrine and packed all the items there away. I followed God’s instruction to be quiet as instructed by God.

“God told me to go there (the shrine), create a scene, step aside and watch the film (the unfolding events). They struck me with charms and nothing happened to me. They know the truth, nobody treated me and I spoke when I got to the Palace of the Oba.”

Although the traditionalists demanded N300,000 from a church in the community where Fagbire had once preached and also N200,000 from the pastor’s family to perform sacrifices to appease the gods for his alleged sacrilege but nothing was given to them.