Pastor Udeme Joseph and wife have a date they would remember more than their wedding day. But that won’t be for something as good as their wedding.
On Sunday, March 17, the Udemes learnt in a hard way the consequences of welcoming a 16-year-old church member and secondary school student, simply identified as Gideon.
The incident of that day almost cost the family the life of the wife. Traumatised Mrs. Udeme said she was more devastated when Gideon told her rescuers after failing to strangle her to death that she wanted to rape him.
Gideon, according her, was a regular visitor to her home but not even the premonition he had that fateful Sunday evening when his unusual quietness almost betrayed him could avert the intention that brought him to the home of the Udemes.
Thinking she was advising her students, the Sunday school teacher had curiously asked Gideon: “I hope you are not a bad boy, don’t join cult in school. You know that you are an orphan, try and concentrate on reading your books so that you can become useful in future.”
But she did not know she was pouring water on a stone until an evil force completely took him over, and he executed the mission that brought him to the home of the Udemes.
Within 10 to 20 minutes but for the intervention of her neighbours, almost inches to her grave, she was lucky to escape death with blood all over her body, as enough evidence of her great escape.
Mrs. Udeme tells Abuja Metro the story of the incident in her home in Mararaba, a suburb in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Unassuming assailant
“About 4.00pm that day, a young boy came to my house. I was sleeping inside the room but he came to my room window to wake me up. I opened the sitting room door for him since he was our regular visitor and a child I always send on errand. I gave him money to buy me noodles in a nearby shop.
“After my meal, I sat down on the couch, watching television. When there was power failure, I noticed that he was sitting unusually quiet. I started advising and asking him if he was a bad boy and cultist. I told him that as an orphan he should be cool headed, good and face his studies.
“After the advice, I started playing game with my phone. He stood up and told me he wanted to wash the plate, as he did whenever he came around. He went into the kitchen and I didn’t even know whether he actually washed the plate.
“He came back and sat quietly and I was about asking him why he was so quiet when he stood up and told me he wanted to drink water. Without looking up, I told him to take it from the freezer near where I sat. He came close and grabbed my neck.
“I could only remember asking him what was the meaning of what he was doing. That was all I could say before I lost consciousness. I finally saw myself in between the television stand but I was not yet fully conscious until he brought out the TV decoder and started hitting my head with it.
“I, however, regained consciousness when I started bleeding. He continued hitting me repeatedly with knife on my head, hands and tummy. He also tried to use the TV power cord to strangulate me. I struggled, shouting for help but the generator noise suppressed my distress call.
“However, intervention finally came through my next-door neighbour, who incidentally did not go for evening fellowship. He heard my screaming and came when the boy was about hitting me with a big stabilizer and pulled him off me. But, the boy claimed that I tried to rape him,” she narrated painfully.
She responded: “I had no reason to suspect he would want to kill me because he had been a good boy. If you see him, he looks so innocent. I had no inkling that he was a cultist and dangerous. Incidentally, he is so accommodating and humble that you would feel free, staying with him.”
Even when Gideon descended on her, she did not think he just wanted to rape or kill her. “Nothing actually came to my mind when he grabbed me. As I said, I lost consciousness and did not think whether he attacked to rape or kill me. I just thank God for saving me, I am lucky to overcome the trauma and be alive to tell the story.”
Husband’s tale
Corroborating his wife’s pathetic story, Pastor Joseph, as he is fondly called, said Gideon blamed the devil while confessing to the act. He said he attempted to murder the woman to satisfy the cult’s demand for blood for his initiation into a higher cult group in school and to raise N5,000 to buy handset for his girlfriend’s birthday.
Pastor Joseph also revealed that Gideon equally confessed to joining school cult when he was in JSS1 at 10 in Benin, Edo State. Since then, according to his tale, he had been involved in rapes, visiting prostitutes in brothels and molesting teachers and senior students that crossed his way.
After the incident, my wife called, crying. She told me that baby Gideon almost killed her in our home. I could not but wonder what happened. I did not rest throughout that night. I arrived Abuja about 10.00am and met many people in my house.
They narrated how the young man came into the house, as he usually did most times as a child my wife taught in Sunday school. In fairness to him, he was a very free child, ready to run errand from morning to night without grumbling.”
He said Gideon had arrived their home, looking very troubled. My wife became worried and asked him why he wasn’t cheerful but he pretentiously said there was nothing wrong. My wife advised him as a pastor’s wife not to join bad gang.
“I had concluded on what to do to assist him and instructed my brothers to ensure he did not escape but while I was on my way to Abuja, God clearly told me to forgive him. On arrival, I told him I had forgiven him but he must go to the church, pray and fast until my spirit finally released him.
“On the fifth day, I just walked to him, told him that he was a cultist and told him to start confessing. In fact, what the boy told me was very shocking and terrifying. He confessed that he was introduced into the cult when he was still in JSS1. He said since then, he had been raping women, patronising prostitutes in brothels and involved in several fights.
“He narrated that a student had approached him back then in Benin and convinced him that he would be a big boy if he joined cult. He admitted that accepting the offer was the beginning of his journey into cultism. He was a good boy until a fellow student here in Abuja after he relocated told him that joining cult would make him a big boy in school. He said since joining the cult, he had been stealing money from the house to pay for sex with prostitutes.
“Gideon also told me that he had entered my house with an industrial scissors but on entering my wife’s kitchen, he saw a sharp knife. He said a voice directed him to use the knife instead of the scissors he came with because the knife would kill a human being faster and easier than the scissors. I believe the spirit of God was at work, otherwise the scissors ordinarily is more dangerous than the knife.
“He said during power outage, he wanted to leave and actually walked towards the door when a voice asked him if he had done what he was sent to do, instructing him to go back and complete his mission,” the pastor narrated.
Explaining Gideon’s confession, pastor Udeme said: “As at the time of this murder attempt on my wife, he was just 15 years but he had done many unprintable things, including giving some boys more than N5000 to beat up a senior in school for molesting him.”
Why he wanted to kill my wife
“He told me he wanted to kill my wife because he needed money to buy phone for his girlfriend for her birthday. He said they promised to give him that money if he could kill the pastor’s wife and while he was eating, a voice ordered him to go and kill the woman to get the money for the phone and his initiation into a higher cult the next Monday.
He said they obviously needed the human blood to prove that he was strong enough to graduate to the higher cult group in school. He told me that university students initiated them into cult and taught them how to use cult slangs. He said the teachers were aware of their activities but were scared to do anything because of security of their lives. He added that they were even planning to stage a riot in the school the Monday, preceding the Sunday he wanted to kill my wife.
“He was in SS1 when God finally arrested him. But, he actually told me that my wife was a lucky woman, otherwise she would have been a dead person by now. Let me, however, announce that since his repentance and he left Abuja after the incident, he has been doing well,” Pastor noted.
Pastor Udeme said: “As a servant of God, we must endure many things. Before that attack, a woman had walked up to me and advised me to stop crying against witchcrafts. But, after the incident, a young secondary school student had come to me, begging that I deliver him from witchcraft or he would die in few days time.”
Other cultists
He came with a ring, tick razor blade and other fetish substances I cannot describe and told me he needed to hand them over to me or he would die. He confessed that they had a chief priest in Masaka, who gave them occult power to operate in secondary schools. He revealed that there was also cultism in private schools and their next plan is to take it to primary schools.
“I took anointing oil, drew a circle and told him to step into it. Before praying for him, he had indicated that the cult bound him to an oath of secrecy and anyone that divulged the secret would die.
“He gave himself a deep cut on the chest with a razor but not a drop of blood came out. He did it in his palm, making some incantations, yet no dot of blood. He became afraid because according to him, if blood did not come out, he had not been de-initiated and the consequence was death.
“He was sweating profusely, looking very terrified until I stretched my hands and said ‘let blood gush out’. When blood came out, he became so relieved. I had wanted the guardians, sitting outside that day to be part of the deliverance but he warned that any of them that tried it would go mad.
“He confessed that the only way to save him was to pray and destroy the ring otherwise it must always return to his private part.
“We burnt the ring, those other fetish materials and held a tough spiritual battle until we finally delivered him. He left Abuja the next day to avoid the members, coming after him and told me that it was the best solution if he wanted to stay alive.
“We spoke recently and I asked him if the ring returned but he said no. Good enough, he has already enrolled in another school outside Abuja. He said to identify cult members, we should watch out for those that usually wear red and black with the same colour of bangles.”
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