The founder of a Nigerian leading religious centre, Fountain of Life Bible Church, Taiwo Odukoya’s wife, Nomthi Odukoya, has been confirmed to have died after he lost the battle with cancer in the country.
Rosemary, a South African of Zulu tribe, died barely two years after contracting cancer disease and battled to survive the ailment before she finally succumbed to the disease and passed on.
The death of the cleric’s second wife ended the over 10 years marriage which Pastor Odukoya ventured into five years after his first wife, Bimbo, passed on.
The said development was announced on Tuesday through a statement released on the church’s official social media handle and with an appeal that Nigerians pray for the family.
According to the statement, the wife of the cleric, after being diagnosed with cancer had been engaging in activities that could assist her to overcome the ailment.
“With deep regret and gratitude to God, we have to announce the passing of our Senior Pastor’s wife, Pastor Nomthi Odukoya. She battled cancer for the better part of 2 years, she stood on the Word of God, and she fought.
“We loved her with all our heart, but who are we to fight with the will of God. The truth is, at one point in our lives, we all will have to say goodbye. So for now, till we meet again in glory, Goodbye Pastor Nomthi,” the statement added.
She died about two months to their 12th wedding anniversary, a marriage which nuptial not was finally tied at the Civic Centre in Lagos State and had produced two children.
Speaking on the marriage, the deceased had disclosed that she did not envision getting married to a pastor and getting married to a foreigner, saying all she had hoped for was to marry a fellow South African.
“I did not know I was going to serve God in this capacity. I was against it because I thought pastors were responsible for peoples’ lives. I believed it was a burden too much to bear and I did not want to be held accountable if people did not live according to the gospel of Christ. I felt serving God and supporting the gospel in whatever way I could, was enough. I did not see myself in a leadership position in a country other than South Africa for that matter,” she added.
It would be recalled that the cleric lost his first wife, Pastor Bimbo Odukoya on December 10, 2005, as a result of the Sosoliso plane crash.
And five years later, 2010, Pastor Odukoya married Rosemary Nomthi, a South African, to fill the vacuum left by the first wife that died in the ill-fated plane.