Fresh trouble for Apostle Suleman as Stephanie Otobo files $5m lawsuit

Latest report from Ontario, Canada indicates that the controversial preacher, Apostle Johnson Suleman is far from getting any reprieve from his publicised affair with Canada-based Nigerian songstress, Stephanie Otobo.

A letter dated April 19 2017 with case file number CV-17-573595, signed by Registrar of the Ontario Superior Court and addressed to Apostle Suleman’s Ontario residence, posited that Otobo has filed a lawsuit, claiming Canadian $5milion for damages resulting from breach of trust, breach of fudiciary relations, breach of contract, negligence, defamation, poisoning, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional stress, forcible confinement, multiple instances of battery, false imprisonment, fraud, assaults, sexual assaults, sexual harassments, harassments and malicious prosecution.

The suit, also seeks an order restraining Suleman from contacting and communication, directly or indirectly, with Otobo while in Canada, and restraining the Apostle Suleman from being at a distance of at least 500 meters from the plaintiff.

The court summon revealed facts that include that Suleman had first been introduced to Otobo around June of 2015 in Canada as one in need of spiritual guidance, averring that Suleman had afterwards groomed and mentored Otobo under his care.

It also revealed Otobo’s status at the time as a refugee in Suleman’s care, after which Otobo had been invited by Suleman to Italy and other European countries in continuation of the grooming, whereupon an amorous relationship had developed between both parties, resulting from psychological programming sessions during the grooming periods.

It further revealed that Suleman had invited Otobo to his church in Nigeria in the summer of 2015, whereupon they had sexual relationship that resulted in pregnancy by August 2015.

Suleman, according to facts revealed, thereafter met with the family of Otobo who include the mother, sister and other relations, bearing gifts, and informing the family of his undertaking to marry Stephanie.

Otobo had relied on Suleman’s undertaking which led her, upon further prompting from Suleman, to forfeit her lucrative career and property in Canada to settle down in Nigeria with her would-be husband.

Soon after, in late August 2015, Otobo arrived in Nigeria to meet Suleman at the Definite Destiny Hotel in Lagos where things took a dramatic turn when Stephanie was given a concoction which Apostle Suleman called “spiritual drink” but which turned was aimed at terminating her pregnancy.

Otobo, who suffered bleeding after taking the concoction, managed to regain consciousness after she was given pain-killing pills by Suleman. She subsequently retuned to Canada to receive further treatment, even as she was then stalked by followers of Suleman who were also his church’s congregants in Canada.

She eventually returned to Nigeria early this year to seek redress for her ordeal, but was arrested on March 17, 2017, in company of a male friend in Lagos and then arraigned on charges slammed on her by Nigerian police officers working under the direction of Suleman, the charges alarmingly include “terrorism.” She was then detained in different centers by the Nigerian police before being granted bail, even as the matter remains pending in court.

Suleman subsequently engaged a sturdy propaganda machinery to stave off the potent threat of Otobo revelations on his person and the Omega Fire Ministries’ image in the public. Some of the tools he exploited were to portray Otobo as unworthy to be associated with, despite Otobo’s revelation of bank transactions between both of them, as well as goading Stephanie’s mother and sister to make public apology during a service at his church on Stephanie’s behalf in a demeaning manner.

According to Canada laws, Suleman has within 40 (forty days) to serve and file his statement of defense. In the event of his failure to appear before the Ontario Superior Court, however, judgment may still be given against him without further notice given to him.