The man in the middle of the “Four Eggs” saga trending on social media, Pastor Sebastian Benstowe of the Good Shepherd Church, Bonny Island, Rivers State, has opened up about the said incident involving him and his supposed girlfriend.
In his chat with Kristina Reports in Bonny Island, Rivers State, the cleric debunked the allegations that he beat his girlfriend over four eggs. He stated that he does not have a girlfriend and no girl came to visit him let alone breaking eggs in his house.
He insists that the girl in the picture being bandied about on social media was not his girlfriend but a former PDP councillorship aspirant who invited him to pray for a cancer-stricken woman at a clinic in Bonny Island.
He maintains that he has utmost respect for women all over the world and would never do anything to harm any woman. He condemned all shades of gender based violence and warns media practitioners, especially those using social media to verify their facts before going public with any information so as not to malign the hard earned reputation of people.
Kristina Reports serves you hot and fresh from the oven excerpts of an exclusive interview with the cleric who has touched many lives through his ministry.
Please let’s meet you, Sir.
My name is Pastor Sebastian Benstowe, pastor of the Good Shepherd Church, located in Bonny Island, Rivers State. I just want to clear the air on the news that has been trending on social media about “four eggs”. I want to let the public know that I am innocent of this saga. I know nothing about it and I am not the originator of the story.
Let me just tell us how I got involved in the whole issue. I came online on the 19th of July, and saw the funny story on the wall of one of my friend known as ‘Adabeke Sledge Hammer’. You can search her out on Facebook. I saw the story on her wall and just laughed over it. I [knew] this would be comedy. I knew people would be commenting on it. A lot of comments were coming up under that post of this lady. I decided to just have a little fun with them to also put up a comment there. What happened was that I decided to put up a comment under the post just as every other person was commenting. But since I felt that this thing must be a comedy, I said that let me make the story more interesting to generate a healthy discussion because I felt it is an interesting story. So I felt that I should make a comment that would generate a healthy discussion, a healthy debate concerning the story I met on that my friend’s wall for people to share their views. Let me know, in our society, those who are for and against domestic violence. Then I dropped a comment under that post.
I now made a comment that “Ahh, I didn’t slap her because of four eggs. I slapped her because she threw away the remaining three eggs when I removed one egg”. Like I said, my intention was misunderstood. I knew that should I play that script, just like in Nollywood where a script is written and another person played the script. I know that should I play this script a lot of people would come out of their shell to share their views, to share their ideas, to share their advice. I never knew that there were very bitter people on social media looking for people to nail. So, since I’m not used to how aggressive people are on Facebook, when I made that comment, somebody now came under my comment to ask me another question which I also responded making it look real. Like I said I made it look real so that people will make more meaningful contribution so everyone of us will know each other’s views.
So, you are saying there was no incident like that?
There was no incident like that to the best of my knowledge. Even if there was an incident like that (I don’t know about it). It did not originate from me. I never knew if there was such an incident.
Do you have a girlfriend?
I don’t have a girlfriend. I do not have a girlfriend, at all.
And no girl came to your house during this period?
No girl came to my house and such didn’t happen. To the best of my knowledge I have tried my possible best to find out the origin of that story. I have also come to realize that the story is just fictitious. It is just fiction. Just to draw people’s attention. It’s just fiction.
But the initial story which was screenshot was sent from your (Facebook) account.
Fine. The initial story, it’s like my account was hacked and the initial story was now pushed into my account because the initial story never originated from me. I don’t how my picture was tagged to it and how it was pushed into my timeline. I don’t know about it. But the initial story never originated from me. Not at all.
But within that period did you notice anything funny on your Facebook account?
Yes, within that period I noticed something because somebody called my attention; and I noticed something funny on my Facebook account which I immediately changed the password. So, the initial story didn’t originate from me at all, at all. So, that is what happened.
So, when under my comment on that very post; like I said I thought we were joking, within a few minutes later a lot of people started calling me that they screenshot my comments and tagged it to my Facebook DP, and the thing is circulating everywhere.
The picture of a particular girl was used in a hospital where you went to visit the supposed girl’s mother was posted after these comments. Do you know the girl in question?
Me visiting a particular girl in the hospital?
You, a particular girl and two other people were in the said picture. The post was that it was your girl’s mother that was sick that you went to visit. You know anything about that?
Human beings can be very funny. That very picture there, there was a girl that was sick of cancer last year and people were soliciting for support and a particular girl, Ruth Dienye from Bonny (she is the girl by my side in that picture); she called my attention to see how we can help raise funds. She particularly called me.
Is it the Ruth Dienye that contested for councillorship?
The Ruth Dienye that contested for councillorship, everybody knows her in Bonny. She called my attention concerning a girl that was sick of cancer. She called me to come and pray for that girl in the hospital.
That was the girl you went to visit?
That was the girl I went to visit in the hospital.
So you never knew any other person in that picture?
Yes, I went with Ruth Dienye to pray for the girl that was sick of cancer in the hospital.
As a pastor, do you believe that domestic violence is wrong?
Yes. Domestic violence is totally wrong that was why that day I kind of played that script in order to generate people’s views on domestic violence. That is just what really happened.
But we noticed that after the supposed comment you said was more of a joke in line with what was already trending, we noticed that you didn’t make any other comment after that. Why did you not put up another comment that nothing like that ever happened?
When I heard of the negative reaction that started coming from my comment I decided to talk to the media to tell them the truth of what really happened. The Bible says you shall know the truth. I know that a lot of people have been trending on falsehood, and when you know the truth. Nothing sets free like the truth. And again, another lesson that I think we should learn from this incident is that there are many incidents happening in life that look too real to be fake, too real to be untrue. And if this kind of story that is not real can make a lot of people to fall that means we really have a problem.
I think we need the spirit of discernment, everyone of us. Everyone of us in society needs the gift of discernment to discern and decipher whatever we hear. This is why a lot of women have married wrong husbands; a lot of men have married wrong wives because the man came with a story that looked so real but the story was not true.
Are you married?
Well, for now I am not married.
Do you have a fiancée?
Yes, I have a fiancée, she is in Jigawa State doing her youth service.
Has she ever visited you within this period?
No, no, no. she has not.
What is your advice to a lot of people using social media?
Yes, my advice to those who are using social media is that they should be careful of what they hear and they should careful before reacting to whatever they hear on social media or else many of them willput themselves into unnecessary troubles.
WATCH OUT HERE FOR THE VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW!!!
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