10/12/2025
š„ THE MYSTERY OF JESU OYINGBO THE MAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF āJESUSā IN LAGOS
(A Story Many Young People Today Have Never Heard)
Lagos has seen many strange moments⦠but none shook the city like the arrival of one man in the late 1950s Olufunmilayo Immanuel Odumosu, better known as Jesu Oyingbo.
This wasnāt just a preacher.
This was a man who stood up one day and boldly declared:
āI am Jesus Christ. The second coming has happened. I am He.ā
Some people laughed.
Some were confused.
But many believed completely.
Families left their homes, packed their belongings, and moved into his community, convinced they were living with the returned Messiah. His group grew so big that it eventually formed a full settlement with shops, businesses, workshops, and daily gatherings.
His headquarters first at Oyingbo (where the nickname came from) and later at Maryland, Lagos was filled with unusual structures, statues, lion symbols, and inscriptions like āPrince of Peaceā, āImmanuel the Christā and āLion of Judah.ā It became one of the most discussed places in Lagos.
To some, it looked holy.
To others, it looked mysterious.
Either way it drew massive attention.
In the 70s and 80s, Jesu Oyingbo became one of the most talked-about names in Nigeria. Newspapers wrote about him. People visited out of curiosity. His followers treated him with unquestionable devotion.
Every evening, he held film nights for the whole neighbourhood a very rare thing at that time. People said he was humorous, friendly, and always smiling, despite the controversies around him.
But everything changed in 1988 when he passed away at age 73.
Confusion hit his followers.
Some expected a resurrection.
It never happened.
After his passing, disputes over his properties and community leadership brought the movement to an end. Court cases followed for years until the estate was eventually taken over by his children.
Today, the story of Jesu Oyingbo remains one of the most unbelievable chapters in the spiritual history