The Minister-in-Charge of the Evangelical Church Winning All, Reverend Elisha Ogundiya, has made more revelations about how Deacon Francis Ogunnusi, the Baale of Onikoko, Abeokuta, slumped and died while preaching in the church on Sunday.
Ogundiya on Tuesday said Ogunnusi, who was a worker in the church, was preaching about death when God took him away; saying “it was my first time seeing such. I hope I can die the same way.”
The man of God said he would complete the sermon of late Ogunnusi next Sunday from the script of the sermon prepared by the late preacher.
He said Ogunnusi was not a pastor in ECWA, explaining that he got the title of a Deacon when he was a member of Winners Chapel.
Contrary to speculations, Ogundiya said the late Baale, who was a close friend to him, regularly attended to his health in a hospital, even as they both engaged in morning exercise everyday, except on Sundays.
Ogunnusi had on Sunday slumped on the pulpit while delivering a sermon on death at the church headquarters in Onikoko area of Abeokuta, Ogun state.
Speaking on the incident, the pastor on Wednesday, told newsmen that he saw how the preacher suddenly fell with the microphone in his hands and died on the pulpit.
He said he was rushed to a nearby private hospital where he was pronounced dead before taking his corpse to the mortuary at the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta.
Ogundiya described the death of Ogunnusi as a personal loss to him, recalling that he usually assigned sermons to the deceased twice in a year.
He explained that three days before his death, Ogunnusi and himself had gone for a medical check up, while the latter later bought some prescribed drugs for himself.
The cleric admitted that when Ogunnusi slumped on the pulpit, there was a bit of commotion in the church, but everything was later brought under control.
He said: “He fell down and the microphone also fell. So, the sound of the microphone was loud. Although at that time, he had asked people to look into their bibles and they were busy reading. So, they just heard the sound and were shocked; but, nobody even went out of the church.”
When asked if the death was medical related or spiritual, Ogundiya said it was spiritual.
He said “It was spiritual. The spirituality in it is that he was convinced that one day, death will come. He said at the introduction of the sermon that if he was privileged to preach again, he would conclude that sermon on death.
“It is not as people have been insinuating that he didn’t take care of his health. But what we conclude was that it was God because he was yet to complete the sermon when he died.
“He told me he bought about N20,000 drugs and every morning, we go on exercise except Sundays and Saturdays.
“He was a cardiac patient, which he had been managing for years now.
“That is why I said apart from the elderly care unit, he also goes to the cardio section for follow up.”
The Reverend prayed God grant the community head eternal rest and give the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
