Evangelist Margaret Abimbola Jegede is the amiable wife of Prophet Amos Babatunde Jegede the founder of Christ Apostolic Church, Hephzibah, Aboru, Lagos. Her husband passed on suddenly recently with no premonition of death.
She shares Prophet Jegede’s last moments and how she courageously managed the situation. According to her nothing was suggestive about the possible demise of the popular Aboru based prophet until it happened. She added that her husband was full of life, in high spirit throughout Saturday October 6, 2023. Friday October 6, was his birthday.
How it happened.
We all withdrew home peacefully and joyfully on Saturday evening. The man of God led the family prayer about 9.00pm before we went to sleep for the night.
He was not used to sleeping early. I can remember he called one of his associates that same night. That is the one we call Katakata. He called and cracked jokes with him, asking when he would like to see him, but the man told him he would come on Monday as he would be going to Ikorodu for a programme.
I can also remember that he prayed till 1.00am that same night. I later told him I was ready to go and sleep. I went outside and heard him coughing and gasping, I called our son to come and see what was happening, he lifted up his head and said Baba was not responding. It was not up to ten minutes. It was very shocking we carried him to our family hospital, but on getting there we were told he had gone to be with his creator. That was how we saw it.
When we came back we laid him on his bed, I jingled the bell nine times and nothing happened. I had to invite his associates to come and stand for him and we did as nothing happened.
Sunday Service
It was very early on Sunday morning, and I knew that our church members would soon be coming, and what I knew was that many members would like to come and greet Baba first. I told those at home to clean their faces and remain calm, and we closed the doors leading to the where we laid him.
As expected we held the Church service on Sunday and we even used it to celebrate his birthday and cut his birthday cake. We did not give any member of the church the room to suspect.
Breaking the News
It was after the celebration and cutting of the cake that we announced the passage of Prophet Amos Babatunde Jegede, two days after his 63rd birthday. We kept him till about 4.30 when we moved him to the mortuary.
The entire church burst into serious commotion, there were hues and cries, many jumped up and fell flatly on the floor. Yes there was serious mourning and groaning. It is very painful. We don’t have any choice but to accept our fate.
But one good thing is that the church remains strong and united even after the demise of the founder and the spiritual icon of the church. After Prophet Jegede’s departure, all the services held by the church remained without failing, the church is always filled with members coming to pray almost on 24 hours basis, and the weekly services were not punctuated. The Church even held its annual thanksgiving service on Sunday October 26, 2023 and everything went on smoothly without any feeling of Prophet Jegede’s absence.
The Church is owned by God. Nobody can fault God for any reason. We are instruments in his hands. All we can do as faithful Christians is to continue to appreciate God and thank Him for all He does.
Premonition
I would not say there was no premonition, but it was like I did not notice it.
I can remember about two week before his demise, he called me and said I should allow him to go. My response was to ask him, going where? I later added that he had not enjoyed anything. I sang and prayed that he would live to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
Another sign of premonition was his reaction on his birthday. Very early that day our son came with trumpeters to wake him up for the celebration of the day. One thing I noticed was that he did not show that joy much as we expected. All the band team had come in and they were dancing and blowing trumpet. He said he should not be recorded. He was not a man to give way to emotions. But I saw that he wept that day. He rarely weeps. One time I realized that he wept was when he lost one of his close friends. He wept because the man was very close to him when he had his health challenges. He planned to give him a befitting burial and he did it well.
On Saturday morning, he called everybody to thank them for what they did for him on his birthday. Some of his spiritual children bought many gifts for him and one of them came with expensive microphone.
After the night prayer he had a prayer with one of our mummies in the church, and they were singing Laifoya lapa Jesu and when it came to the last line Labe ojiji ife Re lokan mi o sinmi, he kept on repeating it so much that mama asked why he was singing that repeatedly.
Well, the church of God is marching on, and I will like to appreciate all our church members far and wide for staying with us at this moment of trial. We believe the church of God will continue to march on.
Meanwhile, we have commenced burial arrangements, the invitation is out, and despite that he did not die an old man, he died leaving behind his aged mother, the church has planned to give him a befitting burial.
The Church after Prophet Jegede
Prophet Jegede did not own the Church. God is the Owner of His Church, once the foundation is on Christ the Rock of ages, and not on herbs. That a pastor passes on does not mean that the flock will scatter, but where there is no anointing, where there is no calling or covenant. See since the passage of Apostle Babalola his calling still speaks getting stronger by the day, how about Baba Akande in Ede, Prophet Babajide and all fathers of faith? I glorify God, nothing stopped since he passed on, that same week he died we gave birth to three children in the church.
God did not allow us to have problem on any of them, mothers and children, they gave birth peacefully. On the third week we gave birth to another one. The covenant is working. We should not say our prophet is gone, Jesus is the prophet, and He is alive forever.
If you heard the testimony of last Sunday, it was very serious and amazing. A woman testified to seeing the spirit of the prophet to protect her from an accident that might claim her life or cause serious injury at her place of work.
Well, as human, we cannot say we did not feel his absence as a father. It was not easy to see him die. The pain is too much because he is my husband, he is my father, he is my uncle, my prophet, and my everything physically.
Preparation for burial
The date has been fixed and the programmes have been drawn. It will begin with Praise Night on Wednesday 22nd November, in our church here. One thing about baba is his love for praise and worship unto the Lord. Baba loved praises. He always put the praise of God to the very front in every programme he held. He believed in praise for whatever he did, and we have also adopted that, and so we will be here to praise God. Wednesday is devoted as Praise Night. Service of Songs and Christian wake keep on Thursday 23rd November, 2023 from 4.00pm also in our church here.
Friday 24th November is burial service at 10.00am. His children and the Church have agreed to give their father a befitting burial. There will be reception at Akinola Playing Field, Near Pipeline, Aboru, Iyana Ipaja.
There will be outing and thanksgiving service on Sunday, 26th November, 2023, also in our Church, CAC, Ibudo Alaafiaa aka Hepzibah, Aboru, Off Last Bus Stop.
Last words
All we can say is to thank God for his life. What he has done is what we are saying now. My appeal to everybody is to live a good life. There are other ministers who would die like this with different ungodly stories flying around. We thank God for his godly life. He was fully committed to the works of his creator, he remained focused to the very end despite challenges. I never followed him to any of the stations he worked. Yet he never betrayed love. When he was in Kaduna, I did not follow him except once when we had our long vacation, yet he could not be accused of fornication, or stealing God’s money. He lived a life worthy of example. Even as an evangelist, you could not give him something to give his boss and he tried to look into it before giving it to his master. I knew many of his masters that could testify to his honesty.
If you talk of not compromising his faith and belief, Mama Aimaku in Ibadan, the mother of the popular Toyin Aimaku of Nollywood, would say Jegede would never compromise on his belief. If you call that stubbornness, yes, it is for Christ, but not on meaningless arguments. If he said this is the number of hours that he would use to pray, it would not reduce if it would not increase, but not of stealing, or of fornication or adultery. He was a highly disciplined minister of God. The wound is there, but I believe God will heal it.
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