Arguably the most published man of God in Nigeria, Primate Ayodele has continued to raise eyebrows in society because of his controversial prophecies and their frequency; no prophet in Africa speaks as much as Primate Elijah Ayodele does.
This brought within me an avalanche of questions that needed to be answered – Is prophecy that easy? Does Primate Ayodele’s prophecy come to pass? Does he prophesy or involved in guesswork? Why does he talk every day? Is he a political contractor disguised as a prophet? And many more questions.
As an investigative journalist saddled with the inherent responsibility of unraveling the truth and revealing hidden things, I took intentional steps to get answers to my many questions about the personality of Primate Ayodele beyond what many of us read on the internet and digging dip into his offline personality.
I put calls through to some of my colleagues if they are aware of any event where I can bump into Primate Ayodele and probably get some of my questions answered but everyone had just one answer – Primate Ayodele doesn’t go out, you can NEVER run into him in any event. This further interested my curiosity, What kind of a man speaks every day and never goes out?
Since I will never meet him in any public event, I knew the best place to get my curiosity quenched would be his church, INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church located at Oke-Afa, Isolo area of Lagos state. Due to the exigency of my situation, I immediately swung into action and planned to attend a Sunday Service, it was the first Sunday in the month of May 2023. I wore a white dress as I had a premonition that I was going to a white garment church considering the pictures I saw on the internet while searching for the church’s address on Google.
I arrived at the church around 5 am on the fateful Sunday morning because I wanted to attend all the services. I had read before that they hold four services every Sunday and the first starts around 4:30 am, I was thirty minutes late to the service. On arrival at the church, I saw a massive construction going on and about three white buildings. In one of the buildings, I saw people outside and praying, I needed no one to tell me service was going on already and those outside shared the same fate as me, they came late and couldn’t get space inside the large auditorium; it was filled to the brim.
I would have been gloomy because I didn’t get the opportunity to get a seat inside the auditorium but all thanks to the projector made available for people at the overflow section. On the screen before me, I got a glimpse of the auditorium even as the prayer session was intense. I saw the beautiful altar, the elegant choristers, the skillful instrumentalists, and everything in the all-white auditorium but I didn’t see Primate Ayodele. I was told by those standing beside me that he just finished leading a prayer session and had gone to attend to some members who wanted personal prayers and counseling with the Primate.
Just after the prayer session, I saw a man walk in, dressed in a multi-colored cassock and zucchettos. He was tall, good-looking, and commanded respect with his presence. I already knew that was Primate Ayodele, I had seen his face severally on social media. He returned to bring the first service to a close as he shared the benediction on arrival.
However, I was struck by the fact that I couldn’t say INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church is a white garment or Pentecostal church. Although white garment was predominant in the church but it wasn’t the conventional garment, it had a special gold lacing. Apart from the white garment laced with gold, some of the congregants wore other colors. Unlike the conventional white garment churches, I.E.S.C. doesn’t use candles or burn frankincense in service rather, they use mantle, anointing oil, and water, just like Pentecostal churches but I couldn’t say for sure where the church belongs. The setting looked a bit like a white garment and a bit of Pentecostal, I couldn’t place it.
Back to my mission, the other services soon began and I ensured I got a seat inside the auditorium. While the services were on, my greatest discovery of Primate Ayodele was that He is a very good preacher. He preached in all the services and I was almost carried away by how solid and informative his teachings were. I never envisaged that I would hear Primate Ayodele preach, I thought the only thing he does is release national and international prophecies but to my surprise, He didn’t even prophesy during the service. Many, just like me, didn’t know prophecy is almost the least of Primate Ayodele’s ministry folds. In public, he is known to prophesy every day about virtually everything but realistically, Primate Ayodele is more of a preacher, teacher, and philanthropist.
A preacher because of his excellent delivery of God’s word, a teacher because everyone in the service including the young and old nodded their head intermittently to express how well they understood the message, and a philanthropist on account of the amount of money he splashed on church members during the service. During my visit to the church, more than 50 youths were called out to be given N500,000 each as an investment into their businesses and every member went home with food items parked in cartons and personally shared by the Primate.
After my long wait for the Primate to prophesy and I didn’t get, I inquired from one of the members, who I felt would be part of the media crew because she was with a digital camera, about where Primate Ayodele normally released his national prophecies which feature online every day. She made me realize that the church has a digital studio where the prophet retires at the end of the day to release warnings to nations across the world. With this revelation, I knew I had to rely on his TikTok account to get his prophecy for the day.
I wasn’t disappointed Primate Ayodele didn’t prophesy in the service, that wasn’t my sole mission. I knew that I can always get his prophecies on his social media pages but I wanted to experience his personality and the other things he does that can verify him as a true or false prophet. We are in a world where prophets ask members to do silly things in service, we have watched how self-acclaimed prophets walk on their members, smash them on the ground, order them to eat live animals and clothes, make them starve themselves all in the name of miracles and prophecies. Also, the word of God has established that no matter how gifted a man is, if he doesn’t have love, he is an empty vessel so I just wanted to have an experience of the Primate too.
In my quest for more knowledge of Primate Ayodele, I discovered that beyond what many read on social media, the prophet has a great and likable personality. I left the church around 6 pm on Sunday with so many members still lined up waiting to see the man of God. The services closed around 4 pm and immediately, he started attending to members in his office yet two hours later, he is still giving personal counsel to them. I think I now understand why he doesn’t go out; his church members are a major reason!
Meanwhile, two days before my visit, Primate Ayodele had set the internet on fire with his revelation of the next inspector general of police in Nigeria. The prophet mentioned that DIG Olukayode Egbetokun was the next in line after Usman Baba Alkali. In the video which was shared, the prophet stated that there will be gang-up against Egbetokun’s emergence but if he can pray to God, he will emerge as the next IGP of the country. This prophecy was also part of the reason for my visit to the church because I didn’t believe the prophet saw this without someone close to power telling him. I felt politicians attend his church and one of them could have easily given him a hint but surprisingly, no single politician was seen among his congregation.
The prophecy of DIG Egbetokun came to pass yesterday with the sack of Usman Baba Alkali by President Tinubu. I was astonished yesterday when the prophecy came to pass because everyone had thought Frank Mba would be announced following his sudden promotions in recent times. The fulfillment further confirms my discovery of Primate Ayodele’s ministry.
In all sincerity, some of the events that have happened so far in President Tinubu’s administration had been long foretold by Primate Ayodele. The suspension of EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa was prophesied in 2021 by the prophet, and the arrest of former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele had also been revealed last year by Primate Ayodele. Even though the sack of service chiefs was expected, He mentioned it severally last year that they will be sacked.
Primate Ayodele has made me realize that there are still prophets who genuinely hear God and speak according to his directives. One thing about him is He is very detailed when it comes to prophesy. An instance was the 2023 presidential and governorship elections that were held in Nigeria. Primate Ayodele went as far as saying how the elections will go in the states, how winners will emerge, and what will happen in the next administration. He didn’t just reveal who will win the election like others, He went deeper by revealing things some would see as inconsequential.
Primate Ayodele has given many prophecies that have come to pass. We will recall that he warned last year that a sitting governor in Nigeria will be incapacitated; this has come to pass in Ondo state with Governor Akeredolu’s illness. His prophecies go beyond Nigeria and Africa, his prophecies have a serious impact on other continents too. The crisis in Sudan, and Senegal, the Russia-Ukraine war, US presidential election, Kenya presidential election, and many more others were all foretold by the man of God.
Ministry-wise, Primate Ayodele has performed excellently well and proved his call as a true man of God, personality-wise, Primate Ayodele continues to exemplify the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the question of Primate Ayodele’s authenticity as a prophet, I can boldly say that indeed, Primate Ayodele is very real.
An Account Of Ahmadu Gbiri – A Freelance Investigative Journalist Based In Lagos
