Vanguard had an exclusive interview session with the self-acclaimed ‘the Lion.’ Odumeje had severally referred to himself as ‘Indaboski Bahose’, ‘the lion himself’, ‘the fighter’, ‘the war’, ‘the liquid metal’, ‘lebadu’, ‘seplae’, and ‘Radical prophet’.
It all started in 1996 when I was selling polythene bags in Onitsha, Anambra state. My mother was mounting pressure on me, telling me stories about Jesus Christ and how He wanted me to serve Him. I was resisting the calling, wondering how a young man like myself would be armed with the Bible, preaching on the streets, when I was supposed to be making money like other young men. I asked my mother to tell that Jesus who had been appearing to her to come and arrest me, without which I would not succumb to the calling.
After many weeks, the Lord appeared and touched me while I was sleeping on the floor. He said, “I am the Lord, I am coming to visit you.” I suddenly got up and started screaming! When I looked at my right shoulder, I saw a kind of red colour imprint of His five fingers on my body. Moments later, a heavy wind started blowing around me, and suddenly, I found myself suspended in the air and I heard a voice from far away from saying “I am the Lord, wait for me. I am preparing and when I am through, I will come and visit you.” I was screaming and screaming! At that point, I became afraid and accepted the call of God without further delay.
The spirit of God now came upon me immediately, as I started going from street to street preaching the gospel of salvation. This was happening between 1996 and 1999. In 2000, I went public with my ministry. I moved out of our one-room apartment, on No 14 Usman street, Onitsha, where people were gathering for prayers and counselling. When I finally kicked off my ministry at the age of 18, I was going from street to street, preaching the gospel of salvation after which I would retire to my shop, located at the popular Maduike Street, Onitsha, to do my business.
Then, I was prospering in my business, as my customers, despite the fact that I would not open my shop on time, would wait patiently for me while I was preaching on the streets. God was blessing me materially. It will interest you to know that the man I served then is one of my pastors today. He has been with me for over fifteen years.
One day, I was lying down when Christ appeared again to me and said “My son, I want you to leave your business and kick start your ministry now.” I felt pained to close my shop and go into full-time ministry. Moreover, my business was becoming more lucrative. Initially, I didn’t believe my calling was a full-time thing. I thought it was something I could combine with my business. So, when I attempted to resist the calling, one day I was going to supply goods to my customers and I fell under anointing. When I got home that day, I told my mum what God told me and my mum, who was pressurizing me to answer the call of God, said it was not possible, that God cannot tell me to close my shop, which was flourishing. And for the fact that I was the breadwinner of the family. So, I tried to console her as I hit the streets every morning to preach the gospel of salvation to avoid staying idle at home. That was how I went into full-time ministry as a prophet of God.
The first miracle I performed was to deliver a woman from the spirit of madness. She’s been a member of my church since then, though she’s married today. That was how I started going after all my friends, who were bad boys then and led them to Christ. Though it wasn’t an easy battle, at the end of it all, they all surrendered to Christ. In my calling, I always tell God that He must prove to me that all things are possible to them that believe. I didn’t believe in faith. I would not believe in what I didn’t see. I would see before I could believe it.
Again, I asked Him to direct me to the church where He belonged so that I would not join the wrong one. He said “I do not belong to any church, I live inside of you, your body is my temple. If you maintain my relationship with you I will manifest myself, and if you don’t maintain my relationship with you, I will keep the quiet inside of you.
He started appearing to me regularly and explaining a lot of things to me. Then, I used to be stubborn and I was doubting Thomas. But I had to bow to the power of God and started preaching on the streets of Onitsha, with a megaphone. Then, all my friends not only abandoned me, but they were laughing at me. I started avoiding them and spending more time going to the mountain at Okigwe to pray and seek the face of God.
That’s why I don’t get tired on the pulpit because I have strengthened myself with fasting and prayer. He fortified me because He said “I neither sleep nor slumber.” He also told me that he would be proving my doubts with evidence. My life revolves around doubts, and Christ proved everything I requested from Him.
I delivered a woman that somebody took to the river for spiritual healing. I said to her, I will perform this miracle to prove to the world that there’s only one God and one power. And that man is Jesus Christ. I delivered her of spiritual attacks. She came to the church today (last Friday) to share her testimony. I performed another interesting miracle in a church in Benin, where I was invited to come and preach the word of God.
When I fell under the anointing, I saw a man suffering from elephantiasis. I asked him to step out in the crowd and as he was doing so, the Holy Spirit told me that the man was suffering from elephantiasis. So, when he came out, I commanded the elephantiasis to disappear immediately and it did. Today, the man is married with three boys and one girl. I don’t charge money to perform any miracle. Freely He gives to me, and freely I give to you.
The only thing I require of you is to fear Lord. I am not like many fake pastors of today, who will speak in tongues, and make incantations just to collect the last kobo from you. And that’s why the Lord cannot allow practical miracles to happen in many Churches because they are full of lies. They are busy cooking up stories that will draw the attention of people to sow the last money in their pockets as seed and even drop their cars. And that’s also why they are criticizing and calling me a devil because I don’t ask people to pay for my miracles. I try to prove everything to make people fear and honour the Lord. People should not see the Lord as a second option and that’s what many churches are doing today.
Some pastors in the bid to perform miracles will visit native doctors who usually make a mockery of them to acquire powers. That’s why many of them will be saying ‘Ndaboski’, we know who you are, forget it. This is because people don’t know Christ, what they know is the church. And that’s not my mission. My mission is not for people to praise me, I won’t take it. That’s why I move around without security because a clear conscience fears no accusation.
Christ said we should not love them because of what we can get from them. But love them because you want them to know me. That’s why I preach the gospel with anger and dedication. This is because the world is full of confusion and deceit. I practice my own Christianity with evidence.
