On Saturday, as different units performed their duties, Chidi decided to inspect the units and give them words of encouragements. As he did that, he saw as Pastor James spoke to members of the choir who were rehearsing. He felt that he too was encouraging them until he heard a verbal exchange between him and a female member of the choir.
“Treasure, how dare you disobey the instructions of a man of God?” Pastor James asked.
“What right do you have to even call yourself a man of God? You certainly don’t have the fear of God. Do you even know what it means to be a man of God?” Treasure asked.
“What is going on here? Why do you speak to him like that?” Chidi intervened.
“Pastor Chidi, this has nothing to do with you, so let it be,” Pastor James said. “She just feels like she is on top of the world. I know how to deal with people like her.”
With that, Pastor James left for his office.
“Treasure, right? Come to my office, now!” Chidi instructed.
Treasure gave him a stare.
“What is even wrong with you?” Chidi asked.
“Ha, nothing oh. It is just that she is having issues with Pastor James because he asked her to come to his office,” a choir member volunteered.
“Don’t worry sir. I’ll come to your office,” Treasure said.
Chidi led her to his office and offered her a seat.
“What was that about? Why will you insult a man of God like that?”
“Please, can you just stop calling him a man of God? He is no man of God, of Satan maybe,” Treasure said which angered Chidi but he decided to be as calm as possible.
“What do you mean by that?” Chidi asked.
“You are not going to believe me anyway if I tell you. He has a very good way of covering his tracks,” Treasure said.
“What tracks, Treasure? You are seriously testing my patience,” Chidi said, trying as much as possible to keep calm.
“Pastor James is a womanizer. He has slept with many choir members, ushers, sanitation unit members, what have you? It all starts with an invitation to his office. I confronted him about it and immediately became his target. I mean, if I succumb to his pressure, I would be silenced, since I won’t want to sacrifice my dignity. I’ll just leave this church. I’m tired,” Treasure said.
Chidi thought about Florence.
“If this has been going on for some time, why have you not left the church yet?” Chidi asked.
“He is not the person that brought me here in the first place. Pastor Francis preached at a programme in my school. It was so powerful and then I decided that I would serve in his church. You don’t believe me, do you?” Treasure asked.
“Well, this is not the first time pastors are being wrongly accused of sexual scandal just to bring them down. And besides, from what you said, you have not seen him sleep with anyone. It’s just hearsay,” Chidi said.
“Ha, I knew it, you can’t believe me over an associate pastor. If it’s just hearsay, what about the words that he spoke to me directly? And, this might just a waste of time. You are a junior pastor. What can you do?” Treasure complained.
“On one hand, you might be lying. On the other hand, if what you are saying is true, it can actually destroy this church and the lives of many here. You need a concrete proof though for anyone to believe you. If I ask you to meet him in his office, would you go?” Chidi asked.
“Of course not. I’m his target already. What if he rapes me?” Treasure asked.
“There is nothing to worry about. I’ve had this kind of experience before when I was still a teenager.”
Chidi went on to tell Treasure about Florence and how they were able to get proof against her father who was an expert in lying.
“In this case, I have reasons to think that Pastor James is much smarter and will not easily enter the trap. You have to stand your ground and be yourself. Don’t try to make him say incriminating words, otherwise, it will backfire. Be the girl you are that knows all that you know and has been avoiding his office but decided to give him the benefit of doubt. If he makes advances at you, it is fine, it will be caught on camera but don’t seduce him to do that. Most importantly, speak God’s word to him. If he repents, there won’t be any need for the video but if he does not, remember Ezekiel 3, his sin will not be on your head anymore,” Chidi said.
“Okay. I’ll do it for the sake of the truth. But how do I bring a camera in and he won’t notice? You know how smart he is,” said Treasure.
“I’ll plant the camera myself. Pastor Victory complained of a fault with the fan in his office. All I need to do is to convince Pastor Francis that all the pastors’ offices should be checked for technical issues. Being the junior pastor, I’ll follow the technicians into the offices and then plant the camera. I’ll also give you an earpiece that you’ll conceal with your weave on so that I can communicate with you without his notice. I’ll tell you when everything is ready and we’ll practise different skills to help you to protect yourself. I won’t be happy with myself if I’m the one that will make him sleep with you. So, please, do all you can to defend yourself,” Chidi said.
Immediately Treasure left the office, Chidi was summoned to Pastor Francis’ office. Seated in the office were Pastor James and Pastor Kelechi. Chidi’s heart skipped a bit.
“Pastor Chidi, we were discussing and decided that Pastor Kelechi needs help organizing the children. So, tomorrow, you’ll serve in the children church together with the Sunday School teachers. Do you understand?” Pastor Francis asked.
“Yes sir,” Chidi said.
That was when Chidi knew for sure that Treasure told the truth. Pastor James understood that Chidi was about to unravel the truth and was doing everything to get Chidi out of the way.
“Pastor Chidi, I understand that you are young and your hormones are still on fire. But, please, remember that you are a pastor here and be careful with your relationship with the opposite sex,” Pastor James warned.
“Pastor Chidi cannot commit fornication,” Pastor Francis vouched.
“I understand. He is much anointed. But what about the young ladies in the church? Am I the only one that hears young sisters in the church talk about how handsome and good-mannered he is? And yet he is very careless with them. I even saw one lady in choir walk into his office,” Pastor James said.
“Pastor Chidi, he is right. You are young and many girls will fancy getting married to you. So, you have to be very careful lest you fall into temptation. And if you have to talk or relate with any lady, please, do it openly. If any needs counselling, you can ask them to meet the pastors’ wives. Understood?” Pastor Francis said.
“Yes sir,” Chidi said.
“Anyway, I hope every preparation has been made for tomorrow’s service? How is the media team going?” Pastor Francis asked.
“Yes sir. Everything is ready sir,” Chidi answered.
For the next one week, Chidi planned with Treasure to catch Pastor James red-handed. Since Pastor James had raised the pastors’ suspicion on Chidi and Treasure’s relationship, they usually met each other very briefly after services. Pastor James was happy that his plan had worked. However, he did not know that Chidi called her every day with video and normal call during the time of planning. Chidi soon discovered she studied music in school. Twice, Chidi visited her school to discuss the plans and on Friday evening, Chidi asked her to come to his office for a ‘dress rehearsal’. Since there was no service that evening, no one expected that any lady would meet with Chidi and her presence went unnoticed.
The next day, after choir rehearsals, she went to see Pastor James in his office. Treasure knew so many Bible scriptures that she kept explaining to Pastor James which infuriated him. When the latter could not take it anymore, he locked the door to his office with bolt and key. He was determined to force himself on Treasure since she did not want to willingly surrender her body.
“Pastor James, what are you doing? Why did you lock the door? Please, give me the key. I want to leave your office,” Treasure shouted to inform Chidi of what was happening via the earpiece on her ear.
“Wow, this is serious. Treasure, don’t panic. I’ll try and get the spare key and come and get you out. In the meantime, make sure the door is not bolted from inside,” Chidi said to her.
“Why are you screaming? You already knew what to expect when you come to my office but you came anyway. What does that show?” Pastor James said as he tried to get hold of Treasure.
Treasure ran around the office, still quoting scriptures to him. By the time, she was close to the door, she unbolted all the locks without Pastor James noticing. She could hear as Chidi pleaded with the janitor in charge of cleaning pastors’ offices to give him the spare key to Pastor James’ office. The janitor refused at first. Chidi reminded the janitor that he, Chidi, was a pastor in the church and the janitor had to obey him.
“Get your hands off me, pastor. Leave me alone!” Treasure screamed.
“I am close, Treasure. Is the door bolted? If yes, say, “My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” If no, “Whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge.” Remember, do everything possible so that he does not have carnal knowledge of you,” Chidi said.
“Pastor James, your judgement has already come, you whoremonger! God will judge you.”
“Thank God,” Chidi said and unlocked the door with the spare key, to see Pastor James’ trouser zip down trying to force himself on Treasure.
Treasure immediately ran out of the door and ran to Chidi’s office. Chidi too left the office without saying a word. Pastor James knew that Chidi would surely report what he saw and plotted how to discredit Chidi before he did anything.
“How did Chidi open the door, anyway?” Pastor James thought.
Meanwhile, the video was being transmitted to and recorded in Chidi’s office. He quickly transferred the video to Treasure’s phone and told her to report the incidence to Pastor Francis’ wife, crying as much as she could.
“Ma, I almost lost my virginity,” Treasure said to Mrs Francis in tears.
Mrs Francis invited her into her office immediately. She felt that Treasure was going to confess how she almost fell into the temptation of sleeping with someone. Instead, Treasure recounted how Pastor James tried to rape her after various attempts to get her to succumb to sleeping with him failed.
“How dare you say these things against the associate pastor of this church, the Lord’s anointed? Do you even know what you are saying?” Mrs Francis asked angrily.
“I knew that you will not believe me. So, when I suspected that he might try to assault me sexually, I decided to video it without his knowledge. Please, watch the video. It has not been edited,” Treasure said, handing her phone over. “He has also slept with many church members.”
Mrs Francis was appalled as she watched the video. She immediately called her husband on phone to come urgently to her office, which he did. He too was angry that his pastor would engage in such an act.
“Wait, all these were planned?” Pastor Francis asked after he saw Chidi in the video open the door. “Call Pastor Chidi for me!”
“I’m sure he’s calling to scold me,” Chidi said when Treasure told him Pastor Francis wanted to see him.
“What are you saying? Are you not coming? We are in this together. Please, don’t leave me halfway,” Treasure said.
“Don’t worry sweetheart. We are in this together,” Chidi said affectionately.
This made Chidi to remember times when Pastor Justice would speak affectionately to him to get him to calm down. Pastor Francis was yet to show Chidi that tenderness but his sternness always reminded Chidi that he was there in the ministry as a servant. How he wished that Pastor Francis would be more like a father to him.
“Besides, it’s not like I can think of disobeying Pastor Francis. Let’s go,” Chidi said.
“Pastor Chidi, what exactly were you thinking? I have warned you about taking laws into your hands. Someone reports something this sensitive to you and you don’t think of telling me, rather you put her life at risk! What if he succeeded in raping her? Pastor Chidi, answer me!” Pastor Francis scolded.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Pastor Chidi apologised.
Pastor Francis gave Chidi some instructions and asked for the incident to be kept secret.
“If you knew that he was going to scold you, why did we make an elaborate plan when we could have just reported to him?” Treasure asked.
“How do you tell a pastor that his second-in-command is a womanizer? I understand that he has the Holy Spirit in him, to lead him to all truth. But in life, situations may become so tricky that even though we know that God is speaking, we choose not to listen, especially when it has to do with the person that you trust the most,” Chidi said.
That day, Pastor James went to report Chidi’s illicit relationship with Treasure to Pastor Francis as a ploy to discredit Chidi.
