Samuel Omoyefa, a sixty-six-year-old man is the first driver of the late Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations.
Here, he shares his experience driving the late clergyman with GBENGA ADENIJI
Tell us about yourself.
I hail from Ora-Ekiti, Ekiti State and trained as a mechanic. I am the fourth child of my parents. I attended only primary school before I went to Enugu State to live with our parents’ first child who’s a soldier. I got to Enugu in 1971 and completed training as a mechanic (automobile technician) in 1973. After I completed training, my brother spoke to one of his friends in Jos, Plateau State, and I went there to work with him as a mechanic and also served as an operator of a stone crusher. I later left Plateau State to Kaduna where I worked at CFAO. There was a crisis in Kaduna at the time and I left in 1980 for Ekiti State. I eventually left for Lagos State in 1981 and established a mechanic workshop with my younger brother in the Mafoluku, Oshodi area of the state. I was staying at Iyana Ipaja then. I got married in 1982.
When did you meet the late cleric, Prophet Temitope Joshua?
I met him through his wife, Evelyn. Remember that I said I lived in the Iyana Ipaja area when I arrived in Lagos State. The woman who later became his wife lived with her brother in the same compound we stayed in. We were neighbours. They later moved to Egbe in the Ikotun area and we still kept in touch. After some time, we also left Iyana Ipaja and moved to Egbe but it was not the same house. One day, the wife visited us with her first baby, Serah, who is now a lawyer. I didn’t know who her husband was then and I asked for their house address so that I could also visit them. I visited them on a Sunday but they were not at home. Their neighbours told me that they had gone to church and described to me how to locate the place. I took a commercial motorcycle to the church which was then known as ‘Tope’s church.’
As I entered, I noticed that the church was built with planks and the worshippers sat on a mat. The man of God wore a white garment. After the service ended, he attended to some church members and I went to meet his wife who took me to him and said we were co-tenants in a building they lived in Iyana Ipaja sometime ago before relocating to Egbe. Her husband greeted me warmly and prayed for me. I noticed something that day in the church which surprised me and made me conclude to join the church. When the worshippers wanted to give offerings, he told them not to but to give the needy on their way home. I narrated everything to my wife when I got home that day. After some time, she joined me to worship there. Some musicians such as Adewale Ayuba, Ahuja Bello and the late Orlando Owoh among others were some of the worshippers I used to see in the church then. The location was not where the Synagogue Church of All Nations is today. He moved to the place some years later. I cannot recall the exact year though.
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