Olatosho Oshoffa, the son of the founder of the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) Worldwide, Bilewu Oshoffa, has defended his late father’s polygamous lifestyle.
He also revealed that the church doesn’t forbid the practice.
In an interview on Sunday, the cleric who presides over CCC International Headquarters, Ketu, Lagos, declared that no prophets in the Bible had one wife.
“Can I tell you something… (sic)? You see, in that scripture, Paul was only advising. Tell me in the Bible, which prophet of God had only one wife? Do your research and tell me.
The late Oshoffa left 13 wives and 53 children behind raising concern about his lifestyle even as the leader of one of Nigeria’s Christian congregations.
However, Tosho, as the younger Oshoffa is also called, dismissed such concern, saying that despite his late father already having three wives, God still gave him the vision to start his ministry 76 years ago.
“I am sure in 1947 if there was a better candidate to found CCC, Oshoffa wouldn’t have been chosen.
“But because there wasn’t a better candidate, he was the only one that God found worthy to found CCC, despite having three wives. So those condemning my father should know that he never had any concubine.
“He married them (his wives), and they were all under his roof. But today, the so-called men of God with only one wife will have concubines outside.
“Which one is better? So, I will tell you that if God were to judge by the number of wives before sending a bishop or pastor on a mission, my father would have been disqualified because he had three wives before God called him,” he stated.
When asked how his father was able to keep his large family closely knitted, he said his father never trained the children from different mothers.
“Let me tell you something, my dear brother. Our father, while on earth, used to gather us together and tell us, never say you are a son or daughter to any of my wives. But tell yourself, you are a son of Oshoffa.
“This means he used that girdle of love to tie us together. So we don’t see ourselves as children of our various mothers but as children of Oshoffa. That is the same way we related when he (Oshoffa) was still in this world and has been doing after his demise.
“Even today, the remaining Oshoffa wives that were younger than my mother, I still refer to them as my mother, because of the love that our father (Oshoffa) has used to bind us together. So, we all remain one as SBJ Oshoffa children,” he added.