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Church gave us miracle baby
A Midland woman claims to have been made pregnant by God, thanks to a self-styled archbishop who is being quizzed by police investigating child-trafficking.
Alfred and Reheman Ngamakala from Coventry say they have had a miracle baby through the Gilbert Deya Ministries, which claims to help infertile women to have children.
But the church’s founder is facing extradition to Kenya after being accused of stealing a child – and Kenyan police want to question the West Midland couple about the birth.
Detectives are already seeking to extradite Archbishop Gilbert Deya from Britain after charging him and his wife Mary with child abduction.
The Deyas have 11 children aged five months to 11, but six have been taken into care after DNA tests showed that they were unrelated to Mrs Deya, who lives in Nairobi.
The millionaire evangelist, whose church has three branches in the Midlands, claims he can help post-menopausal and infertile women become pregnant through prayer – and a £5,000 fee.
But his claims have sparked fears that an international child-smuggling racket could be operating between his home country Kenya and the UK.
Coventry couple Mr and Mrs Ngamakala say that they attended the Birmingham branch of the church, which is run by the archbishop’s son, Pastor Amos.
In an article for a church magazine, Mrs Ngamakala, who is in her late 40s, said she had become infertile after undergoing surgery to remove one of her fallopian tubes at Walsall Manor Hospital.
“I became concerned because we only had one child and we needed the Lord to bless us with another,” she said. “We met Pastor Mensah, the resident Pastor of Gilbert Deya Ministries, and at one of his services he called and laid hands on me.
“I was thrown to the floor under the anointing and Pastor Mensah said ‘God is blessing you with a baby, woman!’. That very month I got pregnant.”
Mrs Ngamakala “gave birth” to her miracle baby earlier this year.
A well-placed church source said: “Mrs Ngamakala attended the Birmingham branch on several occasions and Pastor Amos told members to pray for her so that she could conceive a miracle baby.”
The Sunday Mercury has passed on the claims to the Kenyan authorities.
Gideon Kibunja, a spokesman for Nairobi CID, said: “We have charged Gilbert Deya and his wife with child abduction, along with four others, and suspect there may be more who had claimed to have miracle babies in the UK.
“Like Gilbert Deya we may be requesting that this couple from Coventry be extradited from the UK so that we can investigate their claims.
“We believe this has nothing to do with miracles, but is an international con. Gilbert Deya has shamed all Kenyans and we wish the UK would kick him out.”
Gilbert Deya was charged with stealing a child from a Kenyan hospital earlier this month and could face seven years in prison, if convicted.
The Kenyan Government has applied for him to be extradited from the UK where he has been living for the past two years.
The church claims to have 34,000 members in the UK and also has bases in Nottingham and Leicester.
Members donate a 10th of their salary to the church and Gilbert Deya has amassed three homes, a private jet and a helicopter.
Scotland Yard detectives are probing the baby-smuggling claims and the Charities Commission is also investigating the church, which has a £1 million London HQ.
The Sunday Mercury was unable to trace Alfred and Reheman Ngamakala.
Gilbert Deya Ministries declined to comment about their miracle baby but Pastor Amos previously told our reporter that the church had helped two infertile women from the region to conceive.
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