At a point in the religious life of Nigeria, there was a man called Jesu Oyingbo or Jesus of Oyingbo. Oyingbo is an area in Ebute Meta, Lagos State.
His name was Immanuel Olufunmilayo Odumosu.
Way back in 1959, this man declared:
“I am He. I am Jesus Christ, the very one whose second coning was foretold in the New Testament. I have come and those who believe in me will have an everlasting life and joy. I am the missing of the trinity. I have come to prepare the faithful for the judgment day.”
Immanuel Olufunmilayo Odumosu made fame and wealth by proclaiming to be Jesus Christ in his messianic return.
He was a carpenter, had no formal education, and couldn’t even enrol in a seminary. But he claimed he had a vision from God and that the Bible had been implanted into him, by God Himself.
The name of his “church” was Universal College of Regeneration (UCR).
As a man, to join UCR, you would get whipped nine times. You go chop BILALA nine times!
The opportunity for expansion came when one member of his so called church gifted him a vast swathe of land. He established chains of businesses within the premises of his church and called it the New Jerusalem.
He then encouraged his members to come live in the New Jerusalem. Members who moved into the “Jerusalem” all worked for free in his various business entities. This was how Jesu Oyingbo started rolling in wealth.
The vastness of his wealth was seen in the number of properties he acquired. When Oyingbo and its environ couldn’t contain him, he moved to Maryland. In Maryland a street was named after him because his sprawling estate covered numbers 7a, 7b, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 17 on the street. He also had properties on 37 Aliyu Street, via Felicia Ayodeji Street, off Ikorodu Road, Ketu and 370/322 and 624 Ikorodu Road, Mile 12.
He said while Jesus came to sacrifice and suffer taking care of the cross-carrying and crucifixion, he, the second Jesus, “simply came to enjoy life”.
Since some members live in his New Jerusalem, he had access to a lot of women. He had over 10 wives and aside that, he had access to other female members of his cult. It was even alleged that he slept with his own daughters!
Immanuel Odumosu had prophesied that he would never die, but unfortunately on January 17, 1988, death visited the ‘immortal’ Jesu Oyingbo at a private hospital in Lagos, where he passed on at the age of 73 years.
His followers waited for him to resurrect, but he never did.
When Jesu Oyingbo died, and those in his Maryland enclave were set free, many of them ran back into the compound when they saw roads for the first time as many of them had not seen another world since they were born. They were born in the enclave, they grew up there and never knew another world!
Then too, when Jesu Oyingbo was doing her stuff, people were raising concerns. The response was “leave him to the judgement of God.”
#copied from Lere Olayinka ‘s page
