Pastor’s secret marriage backfires

Police in Ganta, Nimba County are interrogating a 45-year-old pastor for allegedly abandoning his wedded wife in Monrovia to secretly marry another woman in Ganta.

Pastor James W. Jangbo of the Great Commission Ministry in Chicken Soup Factory community, Gardnerville, Montserrado County reportedly changed his name to James Cephus and went to wed Miss Ruth Robert of the Dominion Church in Ganta.

The bride is daughter of the Commissioner Shally Brown of Bain-Garr District in Nimba. The legal wife of Pastor James W. Jangbo, Mrs Mabel Mamie Porte Jangbo, disclosed that she got wedded to Pastor Jangbo on February 20, 2010.

She narrated that her husband had informed her that he was going on a gold mine in Southeast Liberia following their wedding and never return only to learn that he was planning to marry another woman in Ganta without her knowledge.

The 43-year-old mother of five further detailed that her husband paid dowry for Miss Ruth Robert in Boe Community, Ganta ahead of the wedding at the Dominion Church.  The marriage ceremony between Pastor James W. Jangbo and Miss Ruth Robert was to be officiated by the Regional Director of the Dominion Church, Rev. MinikonNyenpan, but was disrupted by Mrs. Mabel Mamie Porte Jangbo on grounds that she will not allow her husband to take a second wife, not before her living body.

The officiating Pastor Rev. MinikonNyenpan said, this was the first time for such situation to occur in the Dominion Church, noting that Pastor James W. Jangbo fooled the Church into believing that he is single and had no previous relationship.

Rev. Nyenpan, who is Regional Director for Lofa, Bong and Nimba Counties, said the Church could not force people to marry as such ceremony should be performed purely on the basis of genuine love between two persons.

He clarified that Pastor James W. Jangbo is not a member of the Dominion Church, but had gone to take the hand of Sister Ruth Robert, a member of the church for marriage. The drama has generated serious criticisms among residents of Ganta for self-styled pastors, who exhibit ungodly characters, including marital unfaithfulness.

Early this year, the senior Pastor of the Authority Believer Christian Church in Ganta was arrested for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl at the church in the Public Work Yard Community in Ganta. Pastor John Bestman was later detained at the Sanniquellie Central Prison, pending court trial, but was released subsequently.

By Franklin Doloquee, Nimba-Editing by Jonathan Browne