If it is true, it is a development beyond human reasoning and against natural processes. And it defies medical explanation. Indeed, it falls into the category of what could be referred to as a miracle
Naturally, it is appointed unto a woman to carry a pregnancy for a term of nine months or 36 weeks before putting to bed. It could either be a single or multiple births, whereby more than one baby come one after the other within minutes. But in the case of Mrs Precious Ogbonna aka Dr Mummy P, the natural sequence was not followed.
Explaining that she became a baby factory after 12 years of childlessness, she said that she was delivered of her first baby, a girl, in 2009 but it died five days later. Then from May 6, 2010 children began to rush out of her womb within intervals of one month. The last one came on April 2 this year. She added that more children are on the way.
A native of Amaigbo in Nwangele Local Government Area (LGA) of Imo State and General Overseer of the Holy Ghost Power Salvation Ministries aka Mercy Centre in Owerri, she got wedded to Mr Donatus Ogbonna of Ngugo in Ikeduru LGA of Imo State on December 19, 1998. For 12 years, she could not conceive but when she did, the most unexpected happened: Babies began to rush out of her womb every other month.
Leaflets announcing that a “great thanksgiving/dedication of her seven wonders of the world” would hold on April 24 (Easter Sunday) at her Church opposite NNPC Mega station along Onitsha / Owerri Road were distributed all about town in large numbers. However, Mummy Pís claims have become enmeshed in controversy. To start with, her husband, Mr Donatus Ogbonna, insists that the man who presented himself to newspaper reporters recently in Lagos as her husband is an impostor.
A Short Message Service (SMS) he sent to our reporter on June 12 reads (unedited): “Pls I hereby debunk my wife’s Sat Vanguard (June11) publication nd de man who impersonated me. I’ve not lived neither been or visited Lagos since 10 yrs ago. Donatus Ogbonna husband.” The hospital where Mummy P claimed to have delivered some of the babies also reacted.
The beginning
According to her, it all started when, a couple of years into her marriage, she could not become pregnant. She said she went through such hard times that she wouldn’t wish her worst enemy as people cajoled and mocked her because she could not bear children. But God assured her that at the right time she would become fruitful.
In an encounter with Daily Sun in Lagos, she said: “It is a great testimony and a surprise package that God gave to me. I stayed a long time before this pregnancy that produced these children. It is just one pregnancy that produced these seven children. I got married in 1998 and after 12 years of looking for the fruit of the womb, seven children from one pregnancy are the result.”
Like any other woman, after nine months of pregnancy, it is delivery time. She went through all the conditions but lost the baby after five days of delivery.
Story begins to twist
Shortly after the death of her babe, the tale began to twist. Her hear: “When I gave birth to the first baby, who was a girl, she died after five days. The baby’s death was so painful because for 12 years I had been praying for a baby only for the baby to die five days after birth. The joy, which the baby’s birth had brought to the family, vanished with her death.
So, I felt so bad and I cried heavily but I didn’t know that I was still pregnant because I was taking local medicine and other hot things that would melt and flush whatever bad blood in my system. It was when the women of my church who even tied wrapper round my stomach to avoid protrusion were praying with me that God ministered to me to remove the wrapper and to stop taking all those local medicine and hot things but I didn’t know the reason.”
She said that after the message she got from God during the prayer session, she felt a movement inside her womb. When she rushed to the hospital, doctors conducted a scan on her and told her that what they saw was a baby sack and fibroid. The scan, according to her, was done at St Elizabeth Hospital, located opposite Mammy market, after the Government House, Owerri.
According to the woman, rather than being devastated by the result of the scan, she calmly went home and prayed. After one month, the movement became serious and when she went to the hospital again and was delivered of a baby girl on May 5, 2010. And as soon as she went home from the hospital, she felt a similar movement in her womb and in another one month, precisely on June 3, she gave birth to another baby girl.
The twist continues
Narrating the sequence of the births, she said: “After the scan, I was told by the doctor that there was a baby sack and fibroid in my womb. Then on May 6, 2010, I was delivered of another baby, who I named Pretty Angel Conqueror. When I came back, I was still experiencing the same feeling and I knelt down to pray and God told me that more babies were still inside my womb.
On June 3, I had another baby girl but this time I didn’t go for any scan again. Somebody called me and mockingly asked if it was only girls that I have in my womb. But to me, I didn’t feel bad because for the past 12 years I have been looking for a child and now they are coming, who am I to start questioning why they are girls and not boys. But to show that God is God, on August 16, I had a baby boy and on September 19, another baby girl came. On October 19, another baby girl was born. On January 13, 2011, a baby boy, Excellent, came. Flourish came and on April 2, 2011, the last one, Ebenezer Bountiful was born. So, that was what happened.”
Madam Precious told our correspondent that when a couple of years had passed after she got married without any sign of pregnancy, she earnestly asked God to bless her with triplet whenever it was time for her to conceive.
“When I was about five years into marriage and there was no pregnancy, I started asking God for a triplet but like the Bible says, ‘When you ask for once, you are given seven times,’ that’s what happened to me,” she said.
Knowing that her claims could be doubted, she volunteered: “If I had undergone any operation, all of them might not have survived but God just spaced it in this way so that they came out one after another in order to be able to survive. I believe that God did it this way because he doesn’t want me to undergo surgical operation; each of them was delivered along with a separate placenta. People were even asking if I took any drug, I said no but that God assured me that at the appointed time, He would bless me.”
When she was asked if all the babies were delivered in one hospital, she said she gave birth to them in three separate hospitals but only gave out the address of one of the hospitals, preferring to keep the others to her chest for security reasons. Another surprising thing about the whole occurrence is that none of the children is being breastfed. She said the reason is that after each delivery, she would be told by the Holy Spirit that were still more babies in her womb. So, not feeding them with breast milk was for safety of the unborn ones.
She said she is spending so much on their feeding since she does not breastfeed them. According to her, they are being fed on SMA gold baby food, which costs N26, 000 per carton and they consume an average of 10 cartons per month. She is, therefore, asking kind hearted individuals and corporate Nigerians to come to her assistance to feed the children.
More babies coming
Dr Mummy P maintains that more babies are still being expected going by the signs she is receiving in her womb and the message she got from God.
Ready for DNA test
And to prove to all doubting Thomases that hers is actually a miracle from God, she said that she is willing to subject herself to a DNA test in any hospital that people might want her to go to know the real parentage of the babies.
According to her, between 1998 and when she conceived, she had only gone to hospital once for fertility test but was given a clean bill of health. Though her husband did not go for any test, she said she kept faith because of a message that was given to her in the past.
“I can say it is the will of God because there was a time somebody told me that unless I work for God, I would not conceive. I was wondering because then I was a prayer warrior, going for hospital ministration and praying for people. But at a time, a group of eight evangelists called Unity for Africa from London and America came to Nigeria and while they were praying for people, one of them called me and asked if I had a ministry, I answered no. All of them prayed for me.
They were the same people that later came back and ordained me a pastor. From then, I would pray for barren women and they would conceive, I would pray for sick people and they would get well. So, even though my husband did not go for test, I never envisaged that the problem could be from him since I remembered the message that was given to me some time in the past,” she narrated.
Doctors confused
Commenting on doctor’s view regarding what happened to her, she said: “My dear, it’s very hard and that is why I did not give birth to all of them in one hospital. One of them even turned me back when I went back the following month for another delivery. He said I should not put them into trouble as the thing is confusing. They couldn’t believe what they saw. Till today, they still can’t explain how it happened.”
Asked why she came all the way from Owerri to Lagos with the seven children, she said: “My friend, who heard about what happened and came down from Lagos to Owerri to see the children became pregnant after her trip. When she conceived, she invited me because, according to her, there are a lot of women in Lagos who are waiting on God for the fruit of the womb and that I should come and pray for them.”
It’s true - Mummy P’s father
When Daily Sun visited her Church in Owerri, her father, Pa Anthony Achonye said that he is aware that his daughter had multiple births within months. Asked if there was any sign that his daughter would be ‘special’, the 75- year old man said: “There was nothing different between her and other children while growing. She grew up like other children and went to school with her mates. She got married and wedded with her husband 12 years ago.
“It took her 12 years to have her first child, a girl. Unfortunately, she died few days after birth. All of us, including her siblings and husband went to bury the corpse. Her husband showed the place the dead child was buried. Thereafter, she started having other children”. Perhaps, to show that all is not well within the household, the retired mason added: “As a matter of fact, she has been telling her husband to go with her to do a test concerning the paternity of the children but I don’t know what he is saying. He is not here right now; I cannot lie against him.”
Pa Achonye also volunteered that his daughter prays for people and some of them get solutions to their problems. Explaining that his daughter opened the church before the floodgate of babies opened, he directed Daily Sun to his son in-law, Mr Donatus Ogbonna, for further clarification. When our correspondent met Ogbonna in his furniture workshop on Tetlow Road, Owerri, he said that his unusual births “is a mirage”. Clad in a jeans trouser and T-shirt, the 48- year old man said that his wife’s journey into ministry has done his “family more harm than good.”|
The following dialogue ensued between Daily Sun and Ogbonna:
Please introduce yourself
I am Donatus Ogbonna, a native of Ngugo in Ikeduru LGA of Imo State. I am a furniture maker and part time student of Imo State University. I am studying History and International Studies. I am a final year student. I am close to 48 years of age. I am also an anti-corruption officer with one star under the National Anti-Corruption Volunteer Corps, a voluntary arm of the ICPC.
Is it true that your wife, Mrs Precious Ogbonna, delivered 7 children in 11 months? Tell us the whole story
We got married 12 years ago, in 1998 to be precise. Since that time we’ve not had any child. About a year ago, there was a time she told me that she was pregnant. After a period, one day, she called me and said that she had put to bed. But within the period, I tried as much as I could to take her to hospital it wasn’t possible.
How?
She said that she attends a kind of private clinic. So, it wasn’t possible for me. But, in conclusion, to me, the pregnancy and the subsequent births is a kind of mirage in the sense that I’ve not been properly fed with the information surrounding whatever transpired.
Didn’t you notice signs of pregnancy?
I am not a woman. She told me that she was pregnant and from time to time, she was collecting money from me for antenatal services. But like I said earlier, by the time I was trying to know exactly the hospital but it wasn’t possible for her to let me know.
In other words, she refused to tell you?
Exactly, she refused to tell me.
Does that mean that you do not stay in the same house with her?
By then, we were staying together.
So, you no longer stay with her?
Well, we stay together partially because a lot of questions came up and things like that. Personally, I wasn’t all that interested in having a kind of quarrel or whatever.
Do we now say that your wife was in the hospital putting to bed every other month as it were and you did not know?
This question you asked me is a good one. I wasn’t told, how can I know?
Have you seen the children?
Yes, I have seen them. There was a day I went there to collect my books and I saw them. I think I‘ve seen them on four or five occasions.
You went where?
To the house
Do they look like you?
They are still too small. I can’t fathom that now.
Are you aware that your wife has been going everywhere telling people that she gave birth to seven children in 11 months?
Of course, the story is all over. It is on the airwave, it is in the Internet, everywhere. But then I decided not to bother myself so much because I have decided to allow the sleeping dog lie.
How do you think people are reacting to this development?
There are bound to be reactions, both positively and negatively but all I know is that in the course of time, we will know or ascertain the true position of the issue.
Did you ever attend her Church?
I used to be a member of the Church.
But you do not worship there any more?
There is a kind of difference between my own belief and what she believes or the path she toes.
Such as?
I don’t believe in a situation where man is deified and God humanized.
Please break it down
In this present dispensation, people attach so much importance to soothsaying and spiritism. That is to say, we are in a situation where people are no longer interested in worshiping God in spirit and in truth. Rather, they want to go to a place where they will be told what will happen tomorrow. Though I believe in miracle but you should not take me off the track of what the Bible preaches about worshiping God in truth and in spirit.
Can you give us an insight into her journey into ministry?
It is a long story. It will take a long time.
Ok, abridge it
When I married her, she was not a pastor. But all of a sudden, I discovered she said that she has a ministry or gift of prophecy. The practice has done us more harm than good in uniting the family.
You said that her journey into ministry has done your family more harm than good, what do you mean?
Earlier on, I made mention of people going after or trying to know what happens tomorrow. A man of God said that ‘some Christians are heavenly useful to the extent that they are earthly useless.’ She pursued extensively the things of her ministry, which led to the neglect and collapse of the ministry. That is what I mean that it has done more harm than good to the family.
Before she became a pastor, what was her occupation?
She was in business. She was selling cosmetic products at Ekeonunwa market in Owerri. But when she felt that her spiritual calling might not tally with her business, she opted out and faced the ministry work.
Is your wife a fake pastor?
I would not say that she is a fake pastor because for some people she is a true pastor but for others, she is not. But on a personal note, the practice is doing more harm than good to me and us as a family. For instance, during the thanksgiving/dedication service of the children, which held last Easter Sunday, I was not involved in any way. I was not co-opted in the planning and execution. My name was not even on the invitation card.
* When our correspondent visited St Elizabeth Hospital, Owerri, a nurse who did not disclose her name, said that it was not possible for a woman to give birth to seven children in 11 months .source The sun news
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