More information has emerged on the circumstances surrounding the death of the founder of Fountain of Life Church, Lagos Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, who passed away in the US on August 7.
The Nation reports that the respected preacher had health issues mainly triggered by personal tragedies.
A source close to the family was quoted as saying
‘’He really didn’t get over the losses he suffered. He tried to be strong but there is a limit to what a man can take.”
Pastor Taiwo, as he is fondly called, lost his first wife, Pastor Bimbo, in a Sosoliso plane crash in 2005. She was 45. The source said the death left the Pastor who shared a well-known synergy with the wife, who he met at the University of Ibadan as an undergraduate shattered.
“Pastor was more devastated by what people said after Pastor Bimbo died than what actually happened. Many people said nasty things that saddened his heart. He was touched by the savagery of the comments. Well, he had no choice and decided to move on despite the heartbreak. It took a lot of talking for him to decide to remarry,” the source added
The clergyman also suffered another tragedy on November 9, 2021, when he lost his second wife, Pastor Nomthi, a South African, after battling cancer.
“If Pastor Bimbo’s death was shattering, Pastor Nomthi’s demise was a technical knock-out. It knocked Pastor down and out. He was inconsolable. He was very bothered about what people would say. It left him totally lifeless. There was nothing we could tell him. It took something deep out of him and some of us became afraid for him.” the source said
When he lost his twin sister a few weeks after his wife’s death, sources said it was more or less the last straw. For someone who has lost two important women in his life, it was tough to take the death of someone with whom he shared his womb and childhood.
“It was a personal, humbling tragedy. He would just gaze and seemed to become completely disinterested in things around him. It was unusual to become totally lost in conversations and issues. I believe something died in him at that point. He tried to put up a strong face for the church but he was human. He died within and it was only a matter of time. That he lived for almost two years after showed the strength of his character” the source said
The health challenges, it was learned, started showing up, knocking him off and necessitating overseas medical trips from which he never recovered.