By Victoria Nnenna Ibezundu, YeyeNews.com, September 26, 2021
A woman who was a member of Assembly of Land of Dominion People, Ajah, Lagos has sent a letter to her pastor to inform him that she would no longer be a member of the church due to incessant harassment she suffered from monkeys during the outing of the church at the Lekki Conservation Centre, Lagos, YeyeNews.com has learned.
The woman, Ms. Somtoo (last name withheld), in her letter said that the pastor and other members watched and did nothing while monkeys kept coming at her and to her table and snatching drinks, puff-puff, chin-chin and other things that were shared during the outing which left her hungry, angry and shaken.
In the letter obtained by YeyeNews, she accused the pastor of having fun with it and at her own expense while snickering and laughing quietly with other members of the pastoral group.
When contacted by YeyeNews.com, Ms. Somtoo said she felt targeted by the monkeys in one part and by the pastor through the monkeys in another part. She explained that midway during the incessant assault, she noticed that each time the pastor made some low-key clicking sound and hand sign towards where she was, the monkeys would invade her. “People say ‘dog whistling’ but this was ‘monkey whistling’,” she said.
“I didn’t eat before going to church because I was fasting and my hope was to break the fast at the outing’, she said. But on getting to the event place, she saw so many monkeys surrounding some portions of the area which the management of the convention center allocated to the church at the event place. She said she felt troubled and knew things might not go down well when she saw two of the monkeys doing some unbelievable things.
“One of them – definitely their leader – had a cigarette in his mouth and puffing. I couldn’t believe it. A monkey smoking cigarette! I saw something like that on YouTube but I thought it was manipulated video. And another one was looking at me intently in a romantic way. I felt uncomfortable and adjusted my dress and hair”, she explained.
Ms. Somtoo, who works for an insurance company, said she was too hungry to process these things and was eager that food and refreshment arrived quickly. But upon getting served, the romantic monkey, who had a blue spot in the center of his forehead, materialized from nowhere and snatched her drink. She was startled and that was when some others among the troop of monkey swooped in and took her plate and its content, some falling on the ground. The whole church was taken aback at first and then burst into laughter. She said she was petrified and not amused at all. “Maybe because I was too hungry to find anything funny”, she ruminated.
She said after that the monkeys kept coming to snatch her food. She kept changing position to eat her food but after one or two bites, a monkey would come from nowhere to unsettle her or to snatch her food. “I got really upset and I knew my face showed it. It beats me that the pastor and other members didn’t see that – how harassed and uncomfortable I was. And it was only me that was targeted by these foolish monkeys.”
YeyeNews.com asked her why she felt they targeted her. “Maybe because I am a fine girl”, she said indifferently and casually, but then changed the focus to the pastor. (YeyeNews.com reporter had wanted to suggest it was probably because of her hair style but thought otherwise.)
“I was expecting him to use his spiritual power to command those monkeys to stay still until the end of the picnic, but he didn’t it – he encouraged them by monkey whistling. Jesus Christ commanded the sea to calm down because of his disciples. This so-called pastor did nothing for me.”
She then detailed so many things bothering her since she became a member of the church. She said none of the things the pastor had prayed about on her head had come to pass, instead she had more problems and troubles in her life: her fiancé left her; her car knocked engine; she nearly lost her job which does not pay enough to warrant the transportation she spend daily work and from work
“Every Sunday this pastor talks about ‘Commanding your week’, ‘Commanding contracts’, ‘Commanding the government, ‘Commanding this and that’, yet he couldn’t command some stupid monkeys that wouldn’t let me rest”, she vented to YeyeNews.com reporter.
“This is the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m not going to that church again. He has no power and I’m done. Enough is enough. Mtcheeeww!”, she hissed.
“Do you know that my grandfather was a rainmaker? He was commanding rain; he would make rain fall for four Igbo market days and more. That’s ‘Commanding your week'”, she said to YeyeNews.com reporter with glee and excitement.
