•WOUNDED: Ebere blows hot Photo: Sun News Publishing

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People familiar with the Catholic parish of Somolu, Lagos must have one way or the other heard stories of the love affair between a smashing young Reverend Father and a fair-skinned lady. The story mostly circulates among persons or members of the church who would be ordinarily adjudged busy bodies.

And because there are always stories or rumours in every gathering of people over one issue or another, most of which sometimes get dismissed as baseless, Saturday Sun did not initially take the gist making the rounds as any serious matter.

The story always circulates in a don’t-say-I-told you manner. It took sometime to get the pieces of the matter together and roll them into a lump of substantial tale. As we caught wind of the tale from someone who had some facts to reveal, at least to the extent of naming names and dropping contacts, it was thought proper to give the link a try.

Saturday Sun in a bid to unravel the rumour spread its contacts and got the phone number of the lady in the centre of the theatre of this sour love tale. Fortunately, she rather obliged a meeting, gave some clues, though reluctantly on the first meet, and later got singing. What she said made it important to hear the priest who holds the other end of the baton, and at last a full story rolls - on how holy cassocks got soiled terribly by illicit sex, drugging allegation, false exchange of engagement rings and the identity suppression game that initially gave animation to this orgy.

…The flesh is weak
Wearied by the papal oath of celibacy, which insists on strict abstinence from sex and marriage, a Catholic priest, Reverend Father Patrick Okon, who allegedly yielded to things of the flesh, has found himself trapped in the whirlpool of an abortion-related web.
With the wind now taken out of the sail of his six months of sizzling romance with one Miss. Ebere Eze, who is still battling to overcome abortion complications she alleged was instigated by the priest, Father Okon is now torn between renouncing the vow he entered into with the Papacy with a view to getting his lover permanently hooked and doing all he can to keep the liaison a guided secret.

Now, an affair gone sour, Ebere, while detailing the genesis of her relationship with the priest in a heart-tugging disclosure to Saturday Sun, said she was taken in by Father Okon’s story of a victim of several wounded love affairs who needed her to mend his broken heart.
Begun somewhere at Agege, Lagos, in December 2006, Ebere told Saturday Sun that she met Father Okon at Tasty Fried Chicken (TFC) where the priest initially introduced himself as a lawyer on an attachment with Saint Kizito Catholic Church, Iju, Agege, Lagos.

Like folks of similar strokes, Okon and Ebere who had both experienced different kinds of bumps in their trajectories to finding true love soon bonded to erase the nightmare of their past.
Akin to a man long native to serving God and Mammon, Father Okon, according to Ebere, on the very first day of their encounter, lamented how a lover, he sponsored through the university ended up in the arms of his best friend, an experience he confided, left him traumatized.
Having once navigated that route herself, Ebere said she allowed her gullibility to get a better part of her. She told Saturday Sun that she had to give the “lawyer” a chance so that both could once again experiment with each other what was left of their shattered hearts.

From one declaration to another, Father Okon, Saturday Sun gathered, allegedly swore his immortal love for Ebere, which culminated in the promise of marriage and an exchange of engagement ring between Ebere and the Reverend Father, now believed to be heavily perforated by carnality.
During the flourishing period of their liaison, which peaked when Father Okon relocated to Saints Peter and Paul, Somolu, a parish, the stealthy romance, which transpired without the parish priest’s knowledge according to Ebere, usually involved her being smuggled in with the assistance of the security man at the gate.

While this practice of sneaking her into the Priory endured, Ebere said she could not understand why this was so, even as Okon had consistently said he was a lawyer and not a worker in the Lord’s vineyard.
At Saints Peter and Paul’s, Somolu, where she eventually found out that Okon was indeed a priest, contrary to his previous claim, sometime in April, Ebere said she was already pregnant for him.
Rattled by the news of her pregnancy, Ebere said the priest did everything to ensure that she aborted what he described as unwanted distraction to his spiritual calling. She disclosed to Saturday Sun that Okon even went as far as providing the money to facilitate the abortion process.

Her refusal to yield ground for fear of risking her life, Ebere said, dangerously pitched her against Okon.
But desperate to ensure that the looming scandal did not morph into an institutional humiliation, following a series of failed persuasions from the priest on his lover girl, Ebere told Saturday Sun that Okon tricked her into going out for ride with him in June 2007. And at a spot along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, just after the crusade ground, Okon, in a BMW 3 Series, pulled up at a joint, where he ordered drinks (a Star lager beer for himself and a small bottle of Guinness Stout for Ebere) for both of them. Among other reasons the priest advanced for insisting on the termination of the pregnancy, Ebere alleged, was the cost of bringing up a child.

According to her, just as she was about to take her drink, it was then the priest remembered he forgot something in the car and asked her to go get it for him. Unsuspectingly, she returned to take her drink, which she also alleged might have been laced with poison.
Ebere further alleged that after the drink, she could neither remember how she made it back with Father Okon to the Reverend fathers’ house at Saint Peter and Paul, Somolu nor how her under wear got soaked with blood. She disclosed that she woke up at about 5:pm, after several hours of unconsciousness to find herself protected with sanitary towel heavily flooded with her own blood.

Terribly weak to go back to Oshodi, where she lives with her brother, and not knowing what to tell him was responsible for her profuse bleeding, Ebere said she spent two nights in Okon’s apartment.
Devastated by what she alleged Father Okon had done to her, by discretely administering an abortion on her, Ebere said she threatened to let the world know what he had done to her. According to her, since the development, she has been experiencing an erratic menstrual flow, sometimes twice in a month or once in two months, coupled with loss of weight.

A mother of a six-year-old daughter, Ebere who hails from Nnewi, Anambra State, said she faces a rejection by her new fiancé who insisted she must be pregnant before he could say ‘yes I do’. The prospect, she lamented, is getting miserable by the minute.
Feeling used, betrayed and abandoned, part of the reason she has to go public with the priest’s carnal liaison with her, which culminated in a pregnancy and an abortion, Ebere told Saturday Sun, was her being renounced by Okon, despite the engagement ring and promise of marriage, from the priest.
Okon, Ebere further alleged, did not mince words by warning her of the mortal consequences of her action.

But unfazed by the priest’s threat to her life, Ebere, doggedly resolute to extract her pound of flesh, thereafter vowed to ensure that Father Okon, who hails from Cross River, pays the price for ruining her life and for what she also said was the priest’s act of perfidy.
In a raunchy but outrageous video recording of their sexual orgy made available to Saturday Sun, Ebere defended that it was her own weapon against the Catholic priest, in case he denies any lecherous liaison with her.

However, spooked by the seriousness of Ebere’s threat to spill the beans, Father Okon reportedly sought ways to pacify her by reactivating his marital vow to her. But then, Ebere had gone too far to turn back on her plans.
Part of the dummy the priest sold to Ebere, Saturday Sun gathered was his planned readiness to quit the priesthood later this year and tie up the nuptial knots with his lover girl. But Ebere said she suspected evil in Okon’s rapproachment, as Okon allegedly said he would kill her.

Text messages
In several text messages to Ebere, the priest, while reaffirming his commitment to their liaison, repeatedly harped on his intention to get out of the priesthood and be part of the world.
Ironically, in some others, Father Okon, doubting that Ebere was amenable to a truce, accused her of allowing herself to be used by two of his colleagues to betray him.

Some of the texts purportedly sent to Ebere and which she forwarded to this reporter, are reproduced below:
“Ebere, it is Appiah and Fabian that paid you to betray me and you did it. How much did they give you? Can you see the prove (sic) of the love you had for me? You told me the other time you did not have the Cardinal’s number, where did you get this from? All I want is peace, once more, I am sorry for the pain I caused you”.
“Let us meet and talk. Friends do have misunderstanding. I am in love with you. Don’t let anyone separate us. When can we see? I am sorry for hurting you”.
“I left the Church (Saint Peter and Paul) since June. I work in a school (Missionary Society of Saint Paul, Iperu-Remo, Ogun State). So you have to arrange for another place where we can meet during the week”.

“Come to Sagamu. I am at RSS Sagamu. When you get to the park, I will pick you up”.
“Eby, if it is marriage you want, let us meet and talk. I may leave my job before end of the year”.
“Have you ever offended God and asked Him to forgive you? That is what I am asking of you. I may leave my ministry soon and I need you with me”.
“Please don’t sleep with anybody. I can’t cope without you. Please forgive. I will start taking good care of you please”.

Fr. Patrick as lawyer
I met Reverend Father Patrick Okon sometime in the evening of December last year (2006) at Tasty Fried Chicken (TFC), Agege. He walked up to me at the counter where I was ordering a drink and introduced himself as a lawyer and even showed me his identity card. He said he was a solicitor to the Catholic Church. Later, we were sharing a table. The first story he told me was that he came from Abuja and he began pouring out his heart to me and how much he loved me and wanted me to go out with him. So from there we exchanged numbers, and we started dating. I never knew he was a priest.

Blast from the past
He spoke so much about his past relationships, how girls had betrayed his love and feelings for them and so on. For instance, he told me of a girl he saw through the university and after graduation, the girl started dating his own friend. These were the kind of stories he was telling me, so l had pity on him and made up my mind to give him my best. Later, he got to know about my past relationships, I told him how I had also been hurt. He said given our peculiar circumstances, we could make the best of lovers.

Promise of marriage
All these while, he never told me he was a priest. From then on, he started working my phone to a breaking point with his calls. he would call everyday to know where I was in the morning, afternoon and evening. So, l confronted him and asked why he was doing this? I told him the way he was going about this thing was not healthy.
He said he was driven by love and that he wanted to marry me. So Barrister Okon, as he said he was, got to the extent of proving his love with giving me an engagement ring, which I am still keeping up to date.

At Saint Kizito Catholic Church
One day, he invited me to a church around Iju area. He told me the Rev. Father of Saint Kizito Catholic Church, Iju, was a family friend and that he was putting up temporarily with him until he sourced his own accommodation. More than twice, I visited him there.
One day, as I was visiting, immediately he saw me, he sent a small boy to keep me in the sitting room. But later, he asked me to come to the room.
He wanted sex that day, but l told him that sleeping with him for the first time was not good. He said it didn’t matter, insisting that we’ve been going on for a while. But there was no sex that day.

Priest unveiled
Not knowing that he was on a missionary assignment to Lagos, it was when he relocated to Saint Peter and Paul, Somolu, that I started suspecting that he was a Catholic priest.
Before he told me he was moving to Somolu, l had started suspecting he was a Reverend Father through his phone. There was a day l searched his phone, but he kept denying it, saying that he was attached to the church as their lawyer, which allows him to live in reverend fathers’ house. He also said his parents were staunch Catholics. He even convinced me to leave my church, Anglican and become a Catholic, which l started considering. It was about four months (April) after l met him that I discovered that he was a priest. I opened his wardrobe one day and found some documents and his white garments. Also, in one of the days that he wanted me to terminate the pregnancy, he put me in his class and asked me to buy an exercise book for jotting. That was the first day I saw he wore his robe.

Engagement and pregnancy
With his persistence, I started withdrawing from Anglican, because he had already given me an engagement ring preparatory to a formal marriage. But later, I understood that he was a Reverend Father. By the time I knew his priesthood status, I was already pregnant for him. This was in April.
I got pregnant while preparing for my JAMB examination. So, when I knew of his identity, and confronted him with my pregnancy, he just said, ‘Well, you know, I am human, I have blood and not water running through my veins like other people’’. So, l told him about the pregnancy and what we would do about it. I told him l wanted to keep the baby but he refused.

U-turn on marriage
He sent me several text messages concerning the pregnancy. The content of the message he sent to me was all about aborting the pregnancy, which he referred to as ‘that thing in your womb’’. So, I told him that I had never had a D&C before and I could not do it. He said he would reject me if I kept the baby. He said that he would never have anything to do with me. He even threatened to kill me if I dared keep the pregnancy to scandalize him and so on. I kept my cool but still thinking of what to do.
So when I travelled to Port Harcourt, he was sending me lot of text messages which I felt very uncomfortable with. All he could say in the text messages were ‘abort the pregnancy’’. He even sent money to me to abort it, but I did not.
It was when I refused, that he asked me to come to back to Lagos that there was a doctor he will take me to.
In fact, he called me and said I should take pills. But, I told him I wanted to have the baby. But he refused and said that babies take too much money to maintain.

On abortion outing
When he found out I was not yielding to the abortion idea, he tricked me on an outing one day. That was in June. He took me to somewhere in Sagamu. The place looked like a club and they play golf there. He ordered a bottle of Star beer and he wouldn’t want me to take soft drink. He ordered a bottle (small) of small Guinness Stout for me. As soon as my drink was opened, that was when he remembered he forgot something in the car and asked me to go and get it for him. I don’t know if he put something in the drink because I slept off and didn’t know how I got back inside his car with him.

I woke-up and saw myself padded in sanitary towel flooded in my own blood. I asked him what happened he said I should not worry. He told me to calm down, let’s go home first. He wanted to drop me off at Oshodi. I said no, that I couldn’t go to my brother’s house because I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. So he dropped off and asked me to take a bike and wait for him at Saint Peter and Paul church, Somolu. I was in his place for two days. He used to prepare food for me while he was hiding me. He did not want anybody to know I was in his apartment.

After abortion
After the abortion, I started having severe stomach pains and each time I talk about those problems, he never regarded it as anything. He would always tell me that I would be well. My body started swelling and smelling from inside and outside. Then I told him I will let everyone know of it. Since then, he started calling me regularly that he wants to see me. But, I’m afraid since he had threatened to kill me if I scandalized him. Several times, he had requested to see me, but I’ve been scared.

Proposal renewed
He renewed his proposal to me after our quarrel over the abortion. He told me he may leave his job before the end of the year. Then several text messages followed suit. He has been pleading that I come to meet him for peace talk and finalization of our marriage as he promised. When I came back from the village, he called me and asked me to meet him. I told him that it wasn’t convenient for me. He said he wanted to take me out for swimming that I should come along with my friend and our swimming trunk. He continued calling me that I should come for him to take care of me. But the way he came back now and started pleading with me, something tells me he wants to kill me or harm me.

Nude video clips
After the abortion, I confronted him. He apologized for not seeking my consent before the abortion. That was when my spirit told me to record every of our dealings in case he tries to deny our affairs. I spent two days in his house and I decided to record every happening between us. It was after he removed the pregnancy and we were both sleeping naked. He likes being naked. And that was when I did the video filming. I did it for evidence sake. That was why I recorded it. After two days in his house, I told him I wanted to go, but he refused. It was after I raised alarm and started shouting “somebody help me!” that he covered my mouth with his hand, opened the door and I left.
That was on June 5, 2007. He terminated the pregnancy on June 4 because I stayed there for two days.