23/05/2026
Why Edward Olayinola Oladokun Said No to Bada Being Buried Near Oshoffa
In the turbulent history of Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), few episodes reveal the deep theological and territorial tensions within the denomination as sharply as the legal objection raised by Reverend Edward Olayinola Oladokun against the burial of the church's second Pastor, Alexander Abiodun Adebayo Bada, close to the tomb of the church's founder, Prophet Samuel Bilewu Joseph Oshoffa, at Celestial City, Imeko, in September 2000.
While the funeral drew enormous national attention — Ogun State Governor Olusegun Osoba represented President Olusegun Obasanjo at the funeral ceremony — it was Oladokun's formal legal challenge that cut to the heart of what Imeko means to millions of Celestial Christians worldwide.
The Holiness of Imeko: A Sacred Mandate
To understand why Oladokun intervened, one must first understand the spiritual weight that the Celestial City carries. Imeko is the hometown of the mother of Prophet Samuel Oshoffa, who founded the Celestial Church of Christ in 1947 in Dahomey (now Benin), moving to Nigeria in 1979. Papa Oshoffa had directed that if he died in Nigeria he should be buried near his mother on family land at Imeko, and his burial ground be treated as holy ground and a place of pilgrimage.
The prophetic vision behind the city was grand and singular. In 1973, a visionary, Pa Muri Adoye, told Oshoffa of a visitation by a troop of angels who had said the Celestial City must be built at Imeko in a place called Igbo-Ifa, home of the traditional Yoruba deity Orunmila. Mecca would be closed and Jerusalem would move to Imeko. This was not merely a burial ground; it was, in the faith and doctrine of the CCC, a divinely ordained replacement for the holiest cities on earth.
Oshoffa died in Lagos on 10 September 1985, a few days after surviving a car crash. He was buried according to his wishes at Celestial City on 19 October 1985 with great ceremony. He left behind wives and children. The Porto-Novo congregation was angry at the choice of burial place, and there were rumours of plans to remove the body to Porto-Novo. The Nigerian police took special precautions to prevent this happening.
From that moment, the tomb at Imeko became the spiritual centrepiece of the entire worldwide denomination.
Who Is Edward Olayinola Oladokun?
Reverend Edward Olayinola Oladokun — also referred to in some records as Evangelist Edward Olayiwola Oladokun — was one of the most persistent and controversial figures in the post-Oshoffa era of the Celestial Church of Christ. Far from being a peripheral voice, he was a senior church leader who claimed the highest spiritual office of the church for himself.
Oladokun stated that there would be no peace in the church until he was duly recognised as the spiritual head of CCC. He further stated that the headquarters of CCC could not be removed from Ketu Parish, and ascribed the headship of the church to himself on the basis of a Supreme Court judgement. He claimed that the late founder, Bilewu Oshoffa, had appointed him as head before his sudden death.
His claims did not go uncontested. A suit was filed against him at the Federal High Court, in which the Trustees of CCC prayed for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining Oladokun from proclaiming and parading himself as the Pastor or leader of the Celestial Church of Christ, purportedly pursuant to the Supreme Court judgement. Also joined in the suit were the Corporate Affairs Commission and Evangelist Josiah Kayode Owodunni.
Oladokun accused both the late Bada and his rival Josiah Kayode Owodunni of falsifying vital documents belonging to the church to pave the way for their selfish ambitions.
The Objection: Bada's Burial and the Threat to Imeko
When Pastor Alexander Bada died on 8 September 2000 at Greenwich Hospital in London, his body was returned to Nigeria and buried at Celestial City, Imeko. It was the decision to inter him near Oshoffa's tomb that ignited Oladokun's fiercest protest.
There had been a legal challenge to the burial of Bada close to Oshoffa's tomb, with Rev. Edward Olayinola Oladokun saying that the burial would erode Oshoffa's intentions for Celestial City to become a pilgrimage centre.
Oladokun's argument was theological as much as it was legal. In his view, Oshoffa had consecrated Imeko with a specific and singular purpose — to serve as the spiritual capital of the entire CCC world, a site of pilgrimage akin to Mecca or Jerusalem in the faiths of Islam and Christianity. Allowing the body of Bada — whose very succession he disputed — to be laid in proximity to the founder's tomb was, to Oladokun, a desecration of that divine mandate. It would, in his framing, pollute the holiness of the sacred ground by making it a burial place for leaders whose legitimacy was itself in question.
The argument also carried an implicit assertion of identity politics within the CCC: Oshoffa's resting place was not merely a graveyard — it was a prophetic monument, and who lay near it mattered.
The Broader Crisis: A Church Fractured
Oladokun's objection did not succeed in preventing the burial. Pastor Bada was buried at Celestial City. The 3rd Pastor, Philip Hunsu Ajose, was appointed the new leader at a meeting on 24 December 2000 at Celestial City. However, Ajose soon became terminally ill and died on 2 March 2001. He too was buried at Celestial City.
The succession crisis continued to deepen. By November 2005, the growing number of factions within the CCC had become undeniable. Those with heads claiming to be CCC Pastor included Daniel B. Agbaosi of Benin, and in Lagos, Nigeria: Paul Maforikan in Tejuosho, Emmanuel Oshoffa in Ketu, Josiah Owodunni in Ijeshatedo, and Edward Oladokun in Ikorodu. US-based Bolanle Shonekan was also a claimant.
By this point, Oladokun had established his own base in Ikorodu, Lagos, from which he continued to press his claim as the rightful spiritual head of the worldwide denomination — a claim rooted, he maintained, in direct appointment by the founder himself.
A Dispute That Defined an Era
Oladokun's stand against Bada's burial at Imeko remains one of the more philosophically coherent protests in the long and painful CCC succession conflict. While other claimants fought largely over administrative and constitutional authority, Oladokun framed his battle in the language of spiritual integrity and sacred geography. His concern was not only about who led the church, but about what Imeko itself represented — and whether its prophetic identity could survive being used as a resting place for disputed successors.
That debate has never been fully resolved. Imeko continues to draw thousands of pilgrims annually, becoming a place of pilgrimage at Christmas for thousands of Celestial Christians from Nigeria, from other parts of West Africa and from more distant parts including London and the United States. But the question Oladokun raised — of who is worthy to lie near the founder, and what that proximity means for the sanctity of the holy city — remains, in the conscience of many Celestial faithful, very much alive.
