UCHECHUKWU OLISAH gave an account on how a woman gave birth to a horse-like creature in a Benin church.

Miraculous, spectacular, bizarre, strange.

Call it any of these and perhaps many more, and you could be right, depending on your perception and, or belief.

It is the story of a woman who gave birth to a foal (horse-like creature) in an otherwise relatively known and modest church at Evboriaria suburb of Benin City, the Edo State capital.

The news of the yet-to-be publicly identified woman’s birth of the foal hit the streets of Benin City like a wild fire in the harmattan on Tuesday, September 12, 2012 with not a few people expressing unbelief at the development.  But the unbelief of this category of persons fast turned into belief when those who had gone to catch a glimpse of the animal-like creature confirmed what they had seen.

This spectacular, bizarre and strange occurrence took place at the World Liberation Ministry, on the old Benin-Sapele road during one of the church’s prophecy programmes. The birth of the horse-like creature threw the members of the church into panic, while those who had sufficient presence of mind were able to provide support and care for the woman during the said period of torment before what many of the church’s people now refer to as the woman’s eventual deliverance and freedom from demonic attack.

The initial response of the General Overseer of the church, Evangelist Silva Wealth Iyamu, that Tuesday, was that of shock at what came out of the woman’s womb. He said during prayers, he had a revelation that there was a woman with an issue and that something was blocking her womb.

“I can’t describe the object. We have seen people vomit several things during our service but not this type of thing. God has been blessing our ministry with prophecies and miracles,” Iyamu added.

However, the woman was said to have gone to an undisclosed place for medical check-up when journalists visited.

On Wednesday September 13, 2012, details emerged of how the woman gave birth to a foal. Another woman, Mrs. Veronica Egiebor, a nurse, who incidentally was at the church programme and was said to have joined about three other women in providing coverage and immediate care for the woman, gave an eyewitness and graphic account of what happened.

According to Mrs. Egiebor, as the programme progressed, “The pastor came out and picked this woman and asked if she was pregnant. She replied ‘yes’. He said her pregnancy has been off and on. The pastor told the woman she was not carrying an ordinary baby. He asked, ‘do you want to go to a doctor and flush out what you are carrying because what you are carrying is not a baby or do you want it to happen, here?’ and everybody shouted ‘yes.’

“The pastor asked four women to donate their wrappers to form a canopy to cover the woman and asked the men to go back, saying that it was women’s affair. He invited me to the scene again. I was there, it’s not a story, it happened yesterday (Tuesday),  it seemed like a miracle.

“The pastor poured the same anointing oil and a sachet of pure water on the woman and asked everybody to pray. He said labour is going to start now. So she was swinging her body and finally she held somebody’s leg with the cloth. She pressed and pushed harder and something dropped and she fell. We now removed the cloth to see what she had expelled.

“Behold, my brother, I have never seen that kind of thing in my life before. People were calling it goat. But that one looks like horse. The object has long neck, the ears were long. It was exactly like horse, although it was in a baby form. But the pastor said nobody should touch it because it’s demonic. Everybody ran away; I don’t know when they took the woman away.”

Mrs Egiebor said she does not know whether the woman is a member of the church as that Tuesday’s prophecy programme was the second time she herself was coming to the church for a programme.

Egiebor also said she gathered that, “The woman was said to have sold vegetables to train her husband in the university. So when the man graduated, the mother in-law did not allow the woman to marry his son. So, she now gave her son another wife. So, the woman may have refused to leave on an account of ‘where I have laboured, nobody can displace me and so, if you say, you won’t leave, you will get what you want.’”

Also on Wednesday, the General Overseer of the church, Evangelist Iyamu who corroborated Mrs Egiebor’s account said, “This is not strange to us, we have been seeing miracles. Yesterday (Tuesday) when we were praying, a word of knowledge came of somebody who had an issue with pregnancy. Sometime, when she goes to ultra-sound (scan), the pregnancy is either confirmed or not there.

“While the deliverance was on, we noticed that the woman was bleeding. We asked her to stand out, barely few minutes after, we heard people screaming. We thought it was a child, but I remember that when we were praying what has been a hindrance, blocking her womb to get pregnant, something of that nature came out. I’m not a medical doctor; so, I don’t know the appropriate word to use.

“So, when it came out, everybody was weeping. It’s something we haven’t seen for a very long time. So, She was still bleeding and she collapsed, So, we had to order everybody outside for ventilation before she was revived and the women around cleaned her up.”

When asked if the woman is a member of the church or had had pregnancy-related complaints, Evangelist Iyamu said, “Our prophetic services are always packed, full of 90 per cent of people that we do not even know. She mainly came to my office yesterday (Tuesday) asking for prayers.”

The General Overseer further said he does not think the woman resides in Benin because the woman, according to him, told him, ‘I don call my mummy in the village and my nurse.’ As of yesterday (Tuesday) evening, I gave her my calendar that she should call me when she gets home and I’m still surprised that she is yet to call.”

According to the Personal Assistant to the General Overseer of the World Liberation Ministry, Prince Onos Jon Ogbovoh, the Tuesday phenomenon is a “miraculous thing.”

Speaking on the woman, he said, “She was not the only one that was delivered yesterday (Tuesday). The pastor did it for a lot of people, but this one was spectacular. The woman, we were told, has been in her matrimonial home for 11 years without a baby and the pastor said there was a woman here who has not had a child for the past 11 years, but that the person always got pregnant and whenever she goes for test, it will show and at another time it will not show again.

“So the woman came out and the pastor said let us put you in an all night on Friday, the woman was begging and pleaded with the whole congregation, so the pastor now agreed. The pastor called her and asked the men to give little space and the pastor insisted that something inside the woman was not a human being; he said it is a funny creature. When the creature came out, it did not look like a human being, but an animal.

“We did not know whether she came with any member of her family, we did not know where she came from. We don’t take record of people that come here or go out, but we know our members. We were expecting her to come back here today (Wednesday). These people come here and go, but later those who are very grateful come back to thank God.

“When it happened, they asked her to go and wash up, the lady pastor assisted her. Remember she fell down and was unconscious and after sometime, the pastor asked everybody to leave the hall for ventilation to come in. People started coming into the church, we did not even know when the woman left. I was not even aware. In fact, the pastor was even asking me where is the woman? So we searched for her, but we could not find her.

“I am sure the woman is ashamed. God has done a good job in her life and she is ashamed but I am sure she is going to come back. The dead creature was left for a while for people to come and see. This morning (Wednesday), the pastor now ordered that they should throw the creature away because it is now becoming an embarrassing thing for him.”