While what actually led to the death of the popular preacher and Senior Pastor and founder of Fountain of Life Church, Ilupeju Lagos Pastor Taiwo Odukoya still seems somewhat mysterious, emerging facts show that the circumstances surrounding his death may not be unconnected with heartbreaking personal losses.
According to the church, Odukoya died in the United States of America (USA) on Monday at 67, but nothing was said about what may have be attributed to the cause of his death.
NewsTrack Nigeria (newstrack.com.ng) learnt that the respected preacher had health issues mainly triggered by personal tragedies.
According to The Nation’s report, a source close to the family said “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 charismatic first wife, Bimbo, in a Sosoliso plane crash in 2005. She was 45.
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 heart break. It took a lot of talking for him to decide to remarry,” the source shared.
On November 9, 2021 death came knocking on his door again. This time, it took his second wife, Pastor Nomthi, a South African, away. Nomthi, who died of cancer, was 47 and had two children for the preacher.
“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.”
When he lost his twin sister 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 was 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 family source explained.
The health challenges, it was learnt, started showing up, knocking him off and necessitating overseas medical trips from which he never recovered.
– Text, excluding headline and other inputs: The Nation
