(Memories)How Pastor Ighodalo’s remarriage to his late wife, Ibidun sparked outrage and his sack from RCCG

“Life is a deep mystery and nobody can really
understand LIFE!” These are the words of Pastor
Ituah Ighodalo when he was preaching shortly
after announcing the death of his lovely wife,
Ibidunni Ighadalo.
Ibidun died on Sunday morning, June 14, 2020 in
Port Harcourt, Rivers State after reportedly
suffering a cardiac arrest.
Ibidun, before her death was working in Bayelsa
and Rivers States, assisting with the building of
isolation centres for COVID-19 patients. Before
her death, she was the boss of Elizabeth R. an
upscale event management company.

The Christian community in Nigeria woke up to
the rude shock of the demise of this lovely wife of
Trinity House Church founder, Pastor Ighodalo
and tributes has been pouring in as people
eulogize her and the good works she did while
she was alive.

Her death has brought back so many memories of
how it all started and I will be looking at how her
marriage to Pastor Ituah 14 years ago sparked
off controversies that rocked one of the biggest
churches in Nigeria, The Redeemed Christian
Church of God, RCCG.
Pastor Ighodalo was a pastor in RCCG before he
started Trinity House Church with controversies
trailing his departure from the church.
Before giving you the full story, let’s start from
where it all began.

How it started
Pastor Ituah was born in Ibadan on April 6, 1961.
He attended the King’s College Lagos and the
International School, University of Ibadan. He
obtained a combined honours degree in
Economics and Accounting in 1982 from the
University of Hull, England, and attended a
Business Certification Course at Harvard
Business School in 2011. He started his
professional career in 1982 at Pricewater House
and later founded Ighodalo & Co., a professional
public Accounting firm in January 1987.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Nigeria and also of the Chartered
Institute of Taxation; he is a member of the
Nigerian Institute of Management, a Member
American Society of Industrial Security, Member
American Institute of Management. He sits on the
board of several companies, chairing some of
them.
He gave his life to Christ in 1993 and was
ordained an Assistant Pastor in the Redeemed
Christian Church of God (RCCG) in 1995 while in
City of David, Victoria Island and full pastor in
2000 as a pastor of RCCG Christ Church,
Gbagada. While with the RCCG, he was actively
involved in the settling up of International
missions, helping to pioneer several RCCG
Parishes locally and abroad.
Pastor Ituah Ighodalo became popular while he
was a pastor at the Christ Church Parish of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God Gbagada. He
nurtured it and it became one of the best RCCG
parishes in the country. He also became one of
the favorite sons of the General overseer, Pastor
Adeboye to the consternation of some top pastors
who were jealous of his successes. Members of
his parish loved him so much that when he was
transferred at one time, they protested so much
that he was brought back to the church.
His first marriage and remarriage
Ighodalo was earlier married to Lucy-Ann
Summer, also a Chartered Accountant like
himself. Ighodalo said he married a fellow
accountant, Lucy-Ann Summer whom he said he
met “while I was going up and down” in 1995.His
first marriage was said to have been contracted
abroad and when they could not produce any
child and he wanted to return back to Nigeria, his
wife refused to return to Nigeria to join him. He
had been separated from his first wife for many
years and the woman was said to have remarried
and even have kids with her new husband.
In an interview he granted This Day Newspapers
years ago, he disclosed that Ann refused to join
him in Nigeria and after much persuasion failed,
she left. “Because the expectations from the
marriage were not met, she met someone else
that met those expectations…,” the pastor added.
After he became born again, he was divorced for
about 10 years and alone before he met the
beautiful former Miss Lux, Ibidunni Ajayi in 2007.
She was then a Youth Corps member. The
courtship lasted over four years, even though he
proposed to Ibidunni after 18 months of
friendship.

According to the newspaper, Ibidunni and Ituah
tied the nuptial knot on 26 February 2007,
followed by the traditional wedding three days
later in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Their marriage lasted for 14 years and they had
two adopted children, a boy and a girl before her
sudden death on June 14, 2020.

Their marriage lasted for 14 years and they had
two children, a boy and a girl before her
sudden death on June 14, 2020.

His sack from RCCG
Two years after remarrying, trouble started for
him in the Lord’s vineyard where he was working.
The trustees of RCCG said it was against their
doctrine for Ighodalo to take this step. According
to the report, The Redeemed Church does not
support remarriage, except when one’s spouse is
deceased.
It was alleged that his getting married again has
been encouraging other pastors of the Redeemed
Church to also desire to divorce their wives and
remarry. And this did not go down well with
Pastor Adeboye who asked him to resign. He had
to leave RCCG with his wife in August 2009 and
promptly started his own church, Trinity House
Church which has grown with amazing speed
from inception.

Pastor Adeboye’s take on the whole issue
About a year later after the incident, The General
Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of
God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye broke his silence on
the whole controversies that surrounded the way
Pastor Ituah left RCCG to start his own church.
He said he only disagreed with his spiritual son,
pastor Ighodalo on the basis of his doctrine but
still loved him very much like a son.
He said in concrete terms that there was never a
time he cursed Pastor Ituah Ighodalo like a lot of
people were saying at that time. He made it very
clear that he does not curse people.
He said Ituah is his son and will remain his son
and warned mischief makers to mind their own
business. Adeboye said when it happened in
apparent reference to the suspension of Ighodalo
from RCCG, he said the church rules needed to be
followed to the letter, so when he decided to
leave, he cannot be stopped.
Adeboye had warned his Pastors during one of
the ministers ‘conference of the church held at
Redemption Camp before the whole saga that
only death can make any pastor of the church re-
marry. He said, whosoever wants to divorce can
do so if such minister is ready to relinquish all
spiritual duties in the church, adding that every
member had a right to leave the church if such
person cannot abide by the rules and regulations
of the church.
Now that his wife, Ibidun is dead, it has brought
back so many memories of what transpired back
then when their marriage sparked off
controversies and outrage in Christendom on the
issue of divorce and remarriage. This issue is still
subject of hot debate in Christianity till today.
This beautiful woman is gone but LIFE continues!
May her soul rest in peace!

What do you think of the controversies
surrounding divorce and remarriage in Christianity
today? Like and share