In this article, Platinum Times Nigeria chronicles the biography, family, career and life story of Taiwo Odukoya.
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Full Name: Taiwo Odukoya
Date of Birth: June 15, 1956
Age: 67yrs-old
Place of birth: Kaduna
Religion: Christian
Death; 7 August 2023
Biography
The following is Pastor Tawo Odukoya’s official biography.
He is the Senior Pastor of Fountain of Life Church, which he and his first wife, Bimbo Odukoya, co-founded.
On Monday, August 7, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya passed away in the USA, according to a statement posted by his church on Facebook.
Early Life Story
Taiwo Odukoya was born on June 15, 1956, in Kaduna, where he also received his upbringing.
Baptist Primary School, Kigo Road, Kaduna, and St. Paul’s College (now known as Kufena College, Wusasa), Zaria, respectively, were the locations of his primary and secondary education.
In 1976, he continued on to the University of Ibadan, where he graduated in 1981 with a degree in petroleum engineering.
After completing the required one-year National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) program, he began working as a petroleum engineer for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in April 1982. He remained there until his voluntary retirement in January 1994, when he was called to the ministry.
FIRST WIFE:
Taiwo Odukoya and Bimbo Williams started dating after they both met at the University of Ibadan in 1980. Four years later, in 1984, they were married.
Three kids were born from the union.
The Fountain of Life Church
The church was founded by Taiwo and Bimbo Odukoya in 1992 with the stated mission of “teaching men and women the art of building successful relationships and the principles of leadership so they can be they are created to be.” Bimbo, incidentally, won the hearts of many with her approach to instructing women on how to create successful families.
The Church Outreaches
Their ministry outreach projects include a hospital, an orphanage, a school for needy children, a farm, a water project that installs boreholes in key locations for people without access to clean, portable water, and a skill-acquisition and entrepreneurial institute for the less fortunate. Odukoya has an estimated 8,000 members nationwide.
Taiwo Odukoya established Discovery for Men and Discovery for Women on April 19, 1997. These non-denominational outreach programs for men and women are aimed at assisting individuals in realizing their full potential.
These outreach initiatives provide technical and real-world life skills to hundreds of thousands of men and women each year through quarterly rallies, mentoring programs, and a vocational center.
CONTROVERSY:
Odukoya was not without controversy, just like any other person. For instance, he addressed the plane tragedy that left him a widower in 2014, nine years after the passing of his first wife.
The controversy surrounding pastors and their ownership of private jets, however, led him to assert that pastors would be well advised to employ such aircraft because they better assist pastoral work and are a safer form of transportation than commercial flights.
SECOND WIFE:
Taiwo Odukoya remarried to South African citizen Rosemary Simangele Zulu on January 5, 2010, five years after their first marriage. Two boys were born from the union.
DEATH OF HIS TWO WIVES
His first wife Bimbo perished together with 102 other passengers on the downed Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 on December 10, 2005.
Odukoya lost his second wife Rosemary Simangele Zulu to cancer once more in November 2021.
On November 9, the pastor made an announcement on the passing of his wife, stating that the South African had “battled cancer for the better part of two years.”
Networth
Taiwo Odukoya’s net worth or net income is believed to be between $2 million and $5 million. His major occupation as a writer has brought him a significant amount of cash.