The founder of the Christ Embassy Chris Oyakhilome has been removed as a trustee of the UK branch of the church.
This is another twist of the scandalous saga of Chris and Anita Oyakhilome’s divorce, which was initiated by the pastor wife in August 2014.
After Chris’s removal Anita now presides over a seven-man Board of Trustees of the N8.2 billion rich branch, Premium Times reports with reference to the church documents obtained by the journalists.
It is believed that the estranged wife, who accused the famous pastor of “unreasonable behaviour”, has for long headed the UK branch of church while her husband had officially presided over the board of Trustees of the charity.
The two partners are allegedly in an intense power struggle for the UK branch. Some of the previously made hints by Chris Oyakhilome already indicated of such development, as he reportedly accused Anita of her intention to overpower the authorities of the elders she met in the church.
Until the recent removal, which was derived from the documents filed by the church’s UK branch to the Charity Commission of England and Wales, Mr. Oyakhilome had been a prominent trustee of the branch since its establishment in 1996.
Interestingly, no reason was provided for the pastor’s removal, which is an unusual practice to the church.
It is not clear whether the reason will be given in the church’s annual report for 2013 which is yet to made public by the charity commission.
Responding to the questions related to the issue, the commission spokesperson Sarah Hitchings said that the commission is not supposed to know why trustees are being replaced or removed.
The international office of Christ Embassy refused to comment on the information obtained, however the insiders said that the removal of Chris was the result of the plot by Anita, who allegedly wants to take control over the branch.
“He has been effectively sidelined. The law in the U.K. does not recognise him as an interested party in that branch of the church anymore.”
It would be recalled that soon after Pastor Anita had filed for divorce, her profile was deleted from the church’s official website. Later Mr. Oyakhilome removed the name and pictures of his wife from the church’s monthly devotional publication, Rhapsody of Realities.
