By Megito Audu
Former beauty queen and wife of Ituah Ighodalo, senior pastor of Trinity House Church, Lagos, Ibidun’s death in the early hours of Sunday, 14 June, 2020 was sudden and devastating.
The deceased who runs an upscale event planning company, Elizabeth R, died few weeks to her 40th birthday.
She was to celebrate her 40th birthday on July 19, 2020.
The former Miss Lux died in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.
Initial suspicion is that she died of heart attack in her sleep.
Ibidun Ighodalo met her untimely death, while helping out with the marquees of isolation centres in Rivers and Bayelsa states.
She was the magical hands behind the Lagos State end of the year decorations during the last years of the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration.
Ironically, Ibidun died while her husband, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo was conducting funeral for another person.
Ibidun’s relationship with her husband served as a perfect example of a divine love affair. Despite challenges, major and minor, they waxed stronger in their love for each other.
The late Ibidun’s marriage to Pastor Ituah Ighodalo 13 years ago when the latter’s first wife left generated alot of controversy.
Pastor Ituah, then was one of the renowned pastors in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), and a cousin of the General Overseer, Pastor Adeoye.
He was compelled to quit the church for remarrying contrary to Biblical injunction since his former wife is still alive.
Accountant turned Pastor, Ighodalo was earlier married to Lucy-Ann Summer, also a Chartered Accountant like himself, whom he divorced. He later got married to former Miss Lux, Ibidunni Ajayi in 2007.
His first marriage was said to have been contracted abroad and when they could not produce any child, his wife refused to return to Nigeria to join him and after he became born again, they broke up.
The Redeemed Church does not support remarriage, except when one’s spouse is deceased.. After 10 years of waiting, Ighodalo later met another lady, Ibidunni Ajayi, then a Youth Corps member. The courtship lasted over four years, even though he proposed to Ibidunni after 18 months of friendship.
The late Ibidunni and Itua tied the nuptial knot on 26 February 2007 and was followed by the traditional wedding three days later in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Two years after leaving RCCG, Ighodalo started his own ministry, The Trinity House.
The late Mrs. Ighodalo was Founder/CEO of Elizabeth R, Nigeria’s top events planning company and Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation, a non-profit organisation created to raise awareness on issues of infertility in couples.
The late Ibidunni was a study in faith. She never had a child of her own despite many efforts at conceiving. Even trying IVF severally could not produce the needed result hence she and her husband had to adopt children.
She thus dedicated her life to assisting and sponsoring women who are struggling to have children. She was reported to have established an IVF Foundation which assisted women to have IVF by paying their bills.
She had assisted many organisations and individuals in solving infertility problems.
Despite her elegant and somehow social life, she was a woman of faith assisting her husband in developing his church and contributing to its growth.