Rev. Dr. Abayomi Olusegun Olarewaju, a former naval officer in the ECOMOG troop to Liberal and a Libya returnee, shares with Christian Benefits how he survived deadly bullet attacks from some miscreants after his church service as one of the profound testimonies of Divine Covenant Evangelical Ministries on the 2025 Annual anniversary of the Egan-based church holding Sunday October 26, 2025.
How would you like to be introduced.sir?
I’m Rev. Dr. Abayomi Olusegun Olarewaju, the General Overseer of Divine Covenant Evangelical Ministries, Egan, Lagos. We have been here on our permanent site since 2001. From here we have expanded to Totowu. The Lord led us to Badagry 2018 where we now planted the church. God has been faithful to us over the years.
Please, share with us how you receive the call to ministry.
I was in the military as a naval officer on the way for commissioning when the Lord told me he needed me full-time. So, I returned home. From 2007-2008 I was privileged my family was in London. I had traveled out of Nigeria when I heard the voice of the Lord said to me, return home. The first time I heard the voice I said Satan, I rebuke you. When I heard the voice the third time I didn’t need anyone to tell me it was the voice of God. Subsequently, the Lord said to me, go and build my house. And we started with a small church in an uncompleted building in an area called Acquisition in Aboru, Lagos state.
Share with us the part of your sojourn to Libya before your call to ministry
I returned from Libya in 2003 intentionally to cross to Italy which was my primary target. In 2004 I traveled to some European countries and landed in Rome. While in Rome I stayed with some reverend fathers in their quarters for almost 20 days. I visited the Vatican City at the times of Pope Benedicts. It’s good to obey God’s voice. The Lord said to me return home. It’s not yet time to leave Nigeria. If you leave now, you’ll die. My co-travelers and I were crammed in one camp in Tripoli for like 14 days while we kept studying the weather and watching the tides of the sea to determine when we should move forward. The tide was very rough. I told the people with me that the Lord said nobody should move in the next two weeks. Ironically, it was during this period that the Lord told me to return home. I obeyed and returned home. Eventually, traveling to Italy as my main targeting came free and easy. From Italy I traveled to Germany; from Germany to France; from France to Switzerland. All these after I obeyed God’s voice to return to Nigeria and work for him full-time.
Have you any regret quitting the military world for ministry work to become a full-time preacher of the gospel?
I have no regrets. Some of my colleagues in the military attended my birthday last February 2025 after over 35 years of parting ways. They have all retired now. Both the commissioned and the non-commissioned have all left the service. If I didn’t obey the Lord then, and remained in the service or abroad maybe by now I would have been dead or something else bad may have happened to me. I may not even be fulfilled in life by now. But since I obeyed God’s voice and returned home I am very fulfilled in all the aspects of the journey spiritually, materially and physically to the glory of God.
What is the mandate of your ministry and its impact on its environment?
The mandate is build my people, raise my people and show them the way. That is exactly what we have been doing in the entire Igando land and beyond since the inception of this commission in this community. The relationship between the Onigando of Igandoland and me is very cordial. Recently, I was on Prayer Mountain when he called me on the phone. For over 15 years now we have been relating closely. Baba Onigando doesn’t joke with God’s messages to him. Annually, he allows me to minister right inside his palace on the first day of every year. During my recent visit to his palace one of his princes testified that a message that I gave to him some time ago has come to pass. Many members of the king’s household have been imparted by the mandate of our ministry. Some have traveled overseas. Some have been fixed up in some reputable corporate organizations as senior officers. Aside the Onigando’s household, our mandate has been greatly impactful upon the lives of the generality of the people in our immediate Egan community and Igando land at large.
What is the significance of the church’s yearly anniversary every October?
The church we are seeing today started in an uncompleted building at Aboru. Aboru back them was a very thick bush and undeveloped area. So, every October we hold this anniversary as our Founder’s Day thanksgiving service to appreciate God for lifting us from a very humble beginning to where we are today to the glory of His name.
Share with us some of the church’s testimonies between last year’s and this year anniversary celebrations?
Testimonies are regular in Divine Covenant Evangelical Ministries. Every week, we record oustanding testimonies of what God does in the church and in the lives of both the members and non-member worshipers in the church. Within this one year we have witnessed God raised the dead. We have many testimonies of house dediccations, car dedications and buildings. Some of our members have relocated overseas. God has sorted the residency papers of our members abroad. We have recorded quite a lot of other awesome testimonies.
What informed the theme of this year’s anniversary, Grace upon Grace, and what should the participants expect from the theme?
When we talk about grace we talk about undeserved favour. As a church we have enjoined grace rising from our little beginning to where we are now. Though we are still enjoining the grace, we are now expecting a higher grace. We are shifting level. Before grace will go higher you must confront smaller graces. In 2023 just as we finished a programme, some small boys were hanging around the church. I challenged them. I didn’t know they carried guns. As I held one of them, I heard a gun blast penetrated my thighs. I screamed Jesus! I recalled my training as a naval officer in the ECOMOG war in Liberia. We were warned if you are shot make sure you don’t fall at the spot you were shot. Quickly move far away from the spot because if you fall at the spot you will die. So, I quickly moved away from that spot. When I eventually sat down I was already drenched in blood. Some people rallied round me and rushed me to hospitals. Three different hospitals rejected me until the fourth one; a general hospital where I was rushed for treatment. I removed thirty-nine bullets from my thighs from the gun blast attacks on me that fateful day. I wasn’t killed in military. So, it was in ministry that the devil aimed to kill me.
