Published: March 17, 2025
Kakata, Margibi County – A Nigerian pastor, Ernest Ihajiameonu, was arrested on Sunday afternoon at his wedding ceremony in Kakata on the order of the Kakata Magisterial Court on multiple criminal charges, including alleged bigamy.
According to reports, Pastor Ihajiameonu abandoned his legal wife, Favor Ihajiameonu, and married another woman while still legally married to her.
According to the writ of arrest issued by Counselor Julius S. Brown, Stipendiary Magistrate of the Kakata Magisterial Court, Pastor Ihajiameonu is also charged with menacing, felonious restraint, simple assault, and disorderly conduct.
Pastor Ihajiameonu was arrested by the police following a court order as he was about to hold a reception for his new wedding ceremony at his God’s Favor Chapel in Kakata. The police stormed the church to arrest him amid strong resistance from his congregants.
The writ noted that his wife, Favor Ihajiameonu, complained to the court that she had been civilly married to him since 2015, and without dissolving the marriage, he abandoned her and entered into another marriage, violating Chapter 6.1 of the Penal Code of Liberia.
Favor Ihajiameonu, in her complaint to the court cited in the writ of arrest, alleged that she was publicly insulted, beaten, and thrown out of the house in 2023 after Pastor Ihajiameonu engaged in a relationship with a young woman who served as an usher in the church. The woman later became a housemaid as well as a 12th-grade student at Lango Lippaye High School, where Pastor Ihajiameonu currently teaches Geography.
A background check by The Liberian Investigator revealed that Ernest Ihajiameonu married Favor in 2015 after three prior divorces. He was also involved in an accident in which his car was gutted by fire at a local filling station in Kakata.
He and several others onboard the car sustained at least second-degree burns. However, he insisted on signing a waiver to leave C.H. Rennie Hospital, where he and the other victims were admitted, and proceeded with marrying the woman he has reportedly abandoned today.
Police in Kakata have jailed Pastor Ihajiameonu along with several members of his church who violently attacked officers in an attempt to resist his arrest.
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