Attempting to speak with members of the community in Achina, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State, where Chukwuemeka Ezeuko not Ezeugo hails from came with some challenge.
Achina community shares boundary with other rural communities such as Mkpologwu and Umuchu, all in Aguata Local Government Area with a population of a little over 8, 000.
It is a remote area that is home to the popular Oye Market, St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and St. Peter’s Secondary School where Rev. King schooled. The acclaimed ‘man of God’, also known as Rev. King, is set for a date with the hangman based on the recent verdict of the Supreme Court.
It was difficult to locate the traditional ruler of the place, as there are two claimants to the traditional stool of the community.
Of the duo, Godwin Nnaemeka Obiora (the Ononenyi, Eze Idegwu III of Achina) is given recognition and staff of office by the Anambra State Government, while the other, David Eze Muokwe, is confined to an autonomous role that has not been recognised.
When The Nation got to Umulekwe village, Isi Achina, where Rev King was born, the inhabitants appeared reluctant to comment on his family. None of the residents was ready to also point at his homestead.
The Nation discovered that the Reverend, who is popular in Lagos, was hardly known in his village, let alone the entire community. Rev. King was said to have left the place early in life.
There were three Ezeukos in his paternal lineage: Sebastine Ezeuko (the eldest), Edwin Ezeuko (Rev. King’s father) and Aaron Ezeuko. All of them are deceased.
A branch of the Christian Praying Assembly (CPA) is located inside the family house in a storey building erected by his late father who died in 1998.
Another building on the premises was a bungalow built by the sons of his uncle, Sebastine, who died in 2000. But the CPA pastor in the compound, identified as Joseph, allegedly demolished the third building put up by the uncle’s children.
It was said that the Ezeukos lived a cat-and-mouse life in the compound, while officials overseeing the affairs of the CPA assumed God-like superiority.
Enquiries about the mother and siblings of Rev. King fetched the response that they live in Onitsha where his father built a house. But no one seemed to know the address.
A resident of the village, Mr. Innocent Eze Nwosu, yielded no information, as he claimed that he never knew Rev. King. He did not grow up in Achina but his maternal home in Ogboji, Orumba South Council Area of the state, he said, “so I cannot say anything about the young man”.
But one of Rev. King’s cousins, Tochukwu Ezeuko, did not deny his link with the controversial man of God, but emphasised the notion that the name ‘Ezeugo’ was contrived in place of the original Ezeuko.
Tochukwu, who resides in the village with his mother, described himself as one struggling to make ends meet, while describing Rev. King and his siblings as ‘townsmen’.
He said: “We do not know where the name Ezeugo emanated from. The last time I saw him (Rev. King) was in 1998 when his father died.
“We are not regretting anything. One person cannot claim to be the entire world. What is happening today, we believe, is the will of God. Let God’s will be done.”
He, however, believed that other acclaimed men of God could be doing worse than Rev. King and that the worst atrocity Rev. King committed was proclaiming himself ‘God’.
For 56-year-old Margret Ezeuko, who claimed she is an Anglican faithful, Rev. King was a gentle youth who had no time for frivolities.
But she was quick to add that the family members seemed to be isolated as they were not on talking terms for some years.
Asked for the reason, Margret recalled a ‘fight’ that led to her children’s detention and demolition of their building. She said: “My husband died in the year 2000 when my children were so small. I have been taking care of them.
“My husband married two wives, and I’m the second one. But the first one died in 2010. These people brought a man called Pastor Joseph from Umuchu in this Aguata, who erected a public address system around this upstairs and when my children came home and saw the development, they asked the man why. He got angry.
“He started fighting Chibuike, and after the fight, he called the police and detained my children. This thing happened on December 31, 2010, and we dragged them to court. The matter is still on.
“One good thing that nobody can take away from Rev King during his growing days is that he was so religious and the praying type, which he learnt from one Ufuma Praying House where their mother was taking them to.
“However, members of this church (CPA) see themselves as God, and if you came there anytime they are in session, you will weep. What they do there is painful, and the kind of things they say, claiming to be men of God.
“If he did those things the members and those who that took him to court alleged he did, then one has no regrets. The judgment is for God. There were no such traits in him when he was growing up, unless those things manifested in Lagos.”
One of the businessmen in the village, who did not want his name in print, told The Nation that Rev. King was not known in the village.
He neither visited the village nor built a house, said the businessman, adding that the subject was a ‘big man’ in Lagos but a ‘poor man’ at home.
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