The embattled General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Ajao Estate, Lagos, Emeka Ezeuko (a.k.a Rev. King), on Wednesday, told an Ikeja High Court, presided over by Justice Joseph Oyewole, that he would not hesitate to burn 75 people to death if God directed him to do so.

King is being prosecuted by the Lagos State Government for alleged offences of attempted murder and murder. He is the ninth defence witness in his case.

King, who was unruffled as he gave evidence, smiled and laughed intermittently with many humorous remarks.

He said, “The policemen who came to arrest me broke through my gate and they were shooting into the air furiously. Ninety per cent of them had pot bellies and this made me laugh when I saw them.”

To buttress his claim as a genuine prophet of God, King said he could cure Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome instantly.

“Give me an AIDS patient right now, and I will cure him within 30 seconds,” he said.

King also narrated how he single-handedly thwarted an attempt by 30 armed robbers to burgle his house in July 2001.

He said he was with the robbers throughout. Although they beat up his gatemen and harassed his housemaid, King said they did not see him while he was in their midst.

“They kept on asking for my whereabouts from the housemaid,” he explained.

He added that the robbers who had earlier taken his video and television sets later abandoned them outside the gate.

“I predicted that the robbers would come back 10 days later, and we notified the police that they would come back. But they did nothing about it, yet 10 days after the incident, they came back,” King said

But he explained that the robbers did not see him as he passed though their midst to get out, though they broke all the doors to pieces.

The accused, who described himself as a supernatural person said, “I have no telephone anywhere. I don‘t use GSM phones and I will never use them forever. I don‘t read newspapers. I started to watch television set in March 2001, that is even occasionally. I don‘t have a driver. I drive myself.

“The only thing I do is to listen to instructions from God and do what he told me to do. Anybody can say what he likes about me. I don‘t care. But if you touch my body, there will be trouble.”

He said he was sleeping in his room on the day of the incident and only rushed down when he heard a shout.

He added that he went down to see the deceased on fire and dragged her to the tap to quench the fire.

He said, “I did not set fire on anybody. I did not burn anybody. All of them had come to tell stupid lies against me. If I did it, I would not tell lies. As a prophet of God, if God directed me to burn 75 persons, I would burn them and I would still come out to say, yes I did it.”

King, who gave his name as “His Holiness, the Most Honourable Rev. Dr. King,” also said all the five former members of his church who had testified for the prosecution against him were motivated by Satan.

He added that a day after the fire incident that killed a member of the church, he conducted 20 marriages during which 40 persons were joined in holy matrimony.

According to him, it was at the end of the marriage ceremonies that the policemen from Force CID, Panti, invaded his church and arrested him.

Hearing continues on Thursday (today).
Punch