The Senior Pastor of The Fountain of Life Church (TFOLC), Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, has died at the age of 67.
According to a message posted to the church’s Facebook account on Tuesday evening, the Lagos-based preacher passed away in the United States of America (USA) on Monday.
“The Fountain of Life Church Family, in total submission to the will of God Almighty, announces the passing unto greater glory of our Father, our Teacher, a great servant of the Most High God, Pastor Daniel Taiwo Odukoya, Founding Pastor of The Fountain of Life Church, who passed unto glory on the 7th of August 2023 in the USA,” it said.
The cause of death was however undisclosed.
The cleric’s death comes less than two years after his 47-year-old South African wife, Nomthi Odukoya, died on November 9, 2021.
Born Rosemary Simangele Zulu, her death came 11 years after she married the Nigerian preacher.
The late Nomthi Odukoya had two sons with the Lagos-based pastor, Timilehin and Jomiloju.
His first wife, Pastor Bimbo, had passed away in the ill-fated Sosoliso crash of 2005.
Early Life
Taiwo Odukoya was born on 15 June 1956 in the city of Kaduna, Colonial Nigeria, where he was also raised. He had his primary and secondary education at Baptist Primary School, Kigo Road, Kaduna and St. Paul’s College (now known as Kufena College, Wusasa) Zaria respectively, before proceeding to the University of Ibadan in 1976 where he obtained a degree in petroleum engineering in 1981. As a petroleum engineer, he started work at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in April 1982 after the compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) scheme, and served there until his voluntary retirement in January 1994 after his call to the ministry.
Family
In 1980, Odukoya met Bimbo Williams at the University of Ibadan and the two struck a relationship that led to their marriage in 1984. The marriage produced three children. On 10 December 2005, Bimbo Odukoya, along with 102 other people, died on the crashed Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145. Bimbo Odukoya’s messages had been well and widely received by many. On 5 January 2010, five years later, Taiwo Odukoya got married again to Rosemary Simangele Zulu from South Africa. The marriage produced two boys.
In November 2021, Odukoya lost his second wife to cancer. The pastor announced the death of his wife on 9 November, saying that the South African “battled cancer for the better part of two years.
