It was huge disappointment and regret as steps taken by the embattled Pastor of Fire House Revival Ministry, Marwa Tumba to let himself off hook hit a brick wall at the Criminal Area Court II in Yola, Adamawa state.
The disappointment and regret followed the dismissal of a no case submission filed by the Pastor through his Counsel, E. O. Odo, where he asked the court to hold that the Pastor has no any criminal case to answer.
According to him, there is no credible evidence to warrant the Pastor to be charged for any crime at all, contending that the entire testimony of Evangelist Kwanye Tumba, has not established the ingredients of any of the offences under sections 302, 377 and 370 of the penal code law.
Pastor Marwa has been standing trial before Honourable Nuhu Musa Garta led Criminal Area Court over allegations of deceitful marriage, criminal breach of trust and defamation of character.
He was alleged to have fell in love with Evangelist Kwanye Tumba, where he deceived her with a marriage proposal, ate her money and ended up frustrating her life.
He was said to have lured his 33 year girl friend and made her to sell her house and kept on collecting the money, squandered it and thereafter dumped her.
At the moment, the girl is said to be living in an uncompleted building at Yolde Pate in Yola South LGA, and sells vegetables in order to earn a living.
But irked by his refusal to marry her as earlier promised, Kwanye Tumba approached the Court and lodged a direct criminal complaint against the man of God, and prayed the Court to recover all her money and her house which he made her to dispose it before getting married.
In an her evidence tendered in court, the girl alleged that she sold her house at the sum of #500,000, and paid the sum of #50,000 directly into the bank account of the pastor as her tithe and also supported the activities of the ministry financially.
The complainant tendered bank teller, list of items for their proposed marriage and evidence of how and where their relationship started after a prayer meeting at Yolde-Pate, a suburb of Yola South Local Government Area and subsequently admitted in evidence.
She informed the court that all through the period of their relationship, the pastor kept assuring her that he will marry her as a result of which she was very opened to him and gave him access to everything, unknown to her that he came to defraud her.
But in his no case submission he filed before the court, Pastor Marwa urged the court to hold that he has no case to answer, and pleaded with the court to discharge him accordingly.
He submitted that there is no credible evidence before the court linking him to commission of any offence whatsoever, saying that the evidence tendered in court by Evangelist Kwanye is such that no court should rely on it in establishing offences against anybody.
But the court presided by Honourable Nuhu Musa Garta in its superior wisdom held that the defendant has a criminal case to answer, and charged him for the offences of criminal breach of trust, deceitful marriage and defamation of character.
The court however dismissed in its entirety the 6 page no case submission filed by the defence counsel, and held that the defendant must stand his trial.
But when asked to enter his plea, the 28 year old Pastor pleaded not guilty to the charges framed against him.
It was at this juncture that the court adjourned the matter to the 24th February, 2021 for Pastor Marwa Tumba to open his defence.
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