By: Kelvin Chiringa
A family that claims to have fallen victim to the trickery of a Namibia-based Nigerian prophet has this week finally testified against him in the Windhoek High Court.
Head of the family Gervasius Arnat vehemently testified that prophet Isaac Onwordi of the Life Changing Christian Church cooked documents and signatures to get full ownership of their Dorado house during the time when they were church members.
Arnat said he had been a member of the church for a good six years during which time he was even elevated to the position of an elder.
He claims that he had only leased the house to Onwordi via an oral agreement with conditions that he would vacate the property on the termination date.
However, the prophet admitted that the only part of the lease agreement he broke was that of installing new structures to the house without the consent of local authorities.
He claims the house was now legally his.
It has come out that the agreement ended in 2016 but the prophet refused the vacate the premises and thus continued illegally owning it.
Yet Onwordi has remained stuck to his word that both parties even went as far as writing a Memorandum of Understanding in connection with the house, something which the Arnats are saying never happened.
Their daughter Gervaldo Arnat has also broken ranks with them and has joined the prophet’s side.
She has gone as far as claiming that indeed the MOU was signed in her presence in Karibib on the 12th of October 2010.
Her choice to take the prophet’s side has driven a wedge between herself and her parents.
It was visible during the trial this week Monday especially when Arnat even refused to identify her as his daughter.
She is set to testify against her father and despite his disowning her, she will present herself as his daughter, the defence attorney indicated.
When Arnat was asked if his daughter was present in court, he looked at her, as she sat between the prophet and his wife, and he said he did not see her.
“I can’t see my daughter. Where is she?” said the father in a show that he had disowned her while information gathered by this publication is that she changed her name to Faith.
Arnat said the last time he saw his daughter was eight years ago and that he would only recognise her in court if she testifies with her birth name.
Meanwhile, he has testified that he was the sole owner of the property together with his wife, which he bought via an FNB loan.
He said all the bank details bore his name.
The case of Onwordi comes right in the wake of another high-level case of prophet Shepherd Bushiri who is under fire in a South African court for money laundering.
The case has opened a can of worms as it came out that the prophet was filthy rich and even owned a private jet with a fleet of top of the range cars.
While it is not clear how all this wealth could be amassed by a prophet, but the case has reignited the debate on just how much a prophet should be worth and whether being rich compromised one’s moral ground.