Jimmy Odukoya, the son of late Nigerian preacher Daniel Taiwo Odukoya, has been named as the senior pastor of the Fountain of Life Church.
Jimmy, 44, was revealed as the head of the church on Sunday.
Senior preacher Rotimi Okpaise, who was presiding over the Sunday service, told the congregants that Taiwo Odukoya had given clear instructions that his son, Jimmy, should succeed him upon his death.
Okpaise said the church’s board of trustees unanimously endorsed Jimmy’s ascension to the throne.
“The board has chosen September 30, 2023 as the date of Jimmy’s installation (as the head of the Fountain of Life Church),” Okpaise said.
Taiwo Odukoya’s death
Daniel Taiwo Odukoya died while receiving treatment in the United States on August 7, 2023. He was 67 years old.
Jimmy is Odukoya’s son with Bimbo Odukoya, the late preacher’s first wife, who died in a plane crash in Rivers State, Nigeria in December 2005. Odukoya had three children with Bimbo.
In 2010, Odukoya married a South African national, Nomthi Odukoya, who died of cancer in November 2021. He had two children with Nomthi.
Prior to joining Christian ministry, Odukoya, a native of the northern Nigeria state of Kaduna, worked as a petroleum engineer, until 1994.
He was famous, and regularly posted live church sessions on his Facebook page, where he had 185,000 followers. Odukoya was buried on September 9.
The Fountain of Life Church, whose headquarters is in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, has a membership of more than 8,000 people.
