The claim, made by Prophet Itunu Onadeko in a Saturday interview with Celestial Reality Check, the media investigative unit of the Celestial Church of Christ, contradicts the account that has circulated since Osoba's death on Wednesday at age 40. It matters because it reopens a case many assumed was settled, and because no police station, hospital or family member has yet confirmed or denied it on the record.

Onadeko, Shepherd-in-charge of CCC Onibuore Cathedral in Bogije, Ibeju-Lekki, said he learned of Osoba's death from an anonymous caller near midnight. "It was a random person that called me around 12 am that she died in a police station in Ikorodu," he said. He said he does not know which station. He said he reported himself at one nearby anyway.

That detail alone raises questions the interview does not answer. Why report to a station if the death location was unconfirmed? Onadeko did not explain his reasoning to Celestial Reality Check, and no police spokesperson has commented publicly on the claim as of this writing.

The final hours

According to Onadeko, Osoba spent her last known hours trying to see two people: Mrs Kehinde Osoba, who he said runs her own church, and Onadeko himself. He said he declined to accompany her because of church programming that day. In his account, a hairdresser who was staying with Osoba went in his place. He said he and Osoba stayed in contact by phone afterward, and that she posted the phrase "Ogo tun tun" (Yoruba for "new glory") before he learned she had died.

That timeline, as recounted, leaves a gap between Osoba's visit and her death that Onadeko did not fill in. He offered no account of what happened at Mrs Kehinde Osoba's location, nor any detail of how or when Osoba ended up at a police station rather than a hospital.

Denials on cancer, poison and abuse

Much of the interview was devoted to rebutting claims that had already spread online. Onadeko said Osoba did undergo cancer surgery, a fact she herself had spoken about publicly, including a 2024 statement describing the experience as one of healing and growth. But he insisted the illness did not kill her. "When I first met her, after I did a redemption prayer for her, she told me she wants to do a surgery on cancer," he said, adding that she filmed a skit with a comedian identified only as Boda Wasiu before the two of them went to Evacare Hospital for the procedure.

He denied allegations that he personally controlled donations raised for that surgery, or diverted the funds toward building his church. No financial records, receipts or third-party accounting were cited or made public to support either the accusation or his denial.

Onadeko also rejected claims that Osoba was physically punished before her death, including a specific and widely shared allegation that faeces or urine had been poured on her over an accusation of stealing biscuits. He described a financial relationship instead: the two, he said, routinely lent each other money, and Osoba once bought gold jewelry for herself and him that they later sold and spent together. "There has never been a time that we were under duress," he said.

On housing, he said the couple never rented their own apartment, and that Osoba lived in a house belonging to her uncle. He said that after her surgery, she gave the uncle 1 million naira when the uncle asked to be compensated for her stay. He did not name the uncle in that portion of the account.

He separately denied that Osoba drank poison before she died, without elaborating on what, in his account, he believes did happen medically in her final hours.

A fractured relationship with her family

Onadeko said Osoba had left the church roughly three weeks before her death, a detail that sits alongside his earlier claim that the two remained in phone contact until the day she died. He did not reconcile the two statements in the interview.

He said that after learning of her death, he did not contact her family directly. Instead, he said he reached out to an uncle identified only as Taiwo. That call did not go well. "He was really mad at me and insisted that he doesn't want to speak with me," Onadeko said.

Taiwo has not spoken publicly about the call, the cause of death, or Onadeko's broader account. The Punch, which first reported Osoba's death and age, has not published a response from police in Ikorodu, from Mrs Kehinde Osoba, from the unnamed hairdresser, or from Evacare Hospital regarding the surgery Onadeko described.

What remains unconfirmed is the most basic fact in dispute: where and how Temitope Osoba actually died. No police station has been named. No death certificate, autopsy finding or hospital record has been cited by any party. Until one of those documents surfaces, or the Ikorodu police division responds, Onadeko's account stands as an allegation, not a finding.