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Olatosho Oshoffa, son of the founder of the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), Samuel Bilewu Joseph Oshoffa, has said no law prohibits any shepherd or clergy of the church from practising polygamy.
Popularly known as Tosho, the founder's son is the shepherd of CCC International Headquarters, Ketu, Lagos.
In a recent interview with The Punch, the younger Oshoffa addressed some controversial issues surrounding the church and its founder.
Tosho is the 20th of the 53 children of his late father, who died on September 10, 1985, leaving behind 13 wives.
However, there were speculations that the Celestial Church founder had over 100 children and some even criticised him and other polygamous men of God for going against the scripture.
Oshoffa defends polygamy
Responding, Tosho insisted that the scripture didn't condemn polygamy, noting that no prophet in the Bible had only one wife.
He also said his father wouldn't have been able to found the Celestial Church if God detested polygamy as he already had three wives before starting the church.
"Tell me in the Bible, which prophet of God had only one wife? Do your research and tell me. Secondly, if God were to judge by the number of wives, my father would have been the first to be disqualified as the founder of CCC, because he was already having three wives before God called him. Yet, he was given the vision and mission to found CCC Worldwide," Tosho told The Punch.
Tosho says CCC condones polygamy
Speaking further, the shepherd said the CCC isn’t against polygamy, stressing that the church has no law that binds a clergy to have only one wife.
He, however, didn't rule out the possibility of that changing in the future.
"As of today, to be frank, polygamy is not forbidden among the clergies, the shepherds, or pastors in CCC. Tomorrow, there may be a law if God says so. But as of today, no law forbids polygamy in CCC," he stated.