In a most recent development to the Tonto Dikeh-Churchill marriage saga, Olakunle Churchill, her estranged husband opened up in an interview.
Churchill in his interview, countered allegations of domestic abuse as well as provided evidence of what really transpired between the warring couple. However, due to the poor audio quality of the video released on the 19th of March, a transcript of the interview will be provided for the general purview of the readers.
Q: Who is Olakunle Churchill?
A: Olakunle Churchill is a philanthropist and the chairman of Big Church group of companies. We have six subsidiaries; Big Church Haven LTD, King Andrea Realtors, Big Church Consult, Big Church Entertainment, Big Church Green Agriculture and Mining, Big Church foundation.
Q: How did you meet Tonto Dikeh?
A: I met her at my brother’s birthday party at Escape night club two and half years ago.
Q: What then transpired?
A: We became friends, we exchanged contact and got along. After six months she got pregnant, so I decided to take her to her hometown to pay her dowry.
Q: In her recent interview she said she watched you make every dime you have now.
A: No that’s not possible, I met her two year, six months ago and I’ve been into real estate since I was 22 years old so I don’t understand where that is coming from.
Q: So are you saying that you were already made before you met Tonto and married her?
A: Well, I can’t say I’m made yet but I’ve been working since I was 22 and I’m good. When I met her, I had 4 companies and now I have 6 companies, people grow every day.
Q: Tell us about the incident that happened in Ghana?
A: I picked her from the airport just a day before her birthday, which was June 8, 2015. We had a misunderstanding and she decided to go to an hotel. I sent her a text the next day that I was going for a friend’s house warming, I got a call that she came home around 3, 4 and started breaking everything in the house. Luckily for me, I switched off the electric fence wire before I left the house, she started from the electric fence, pulled it down and jumped into my compound. I called the police and they were already in my house before I got there. My neighbors also called the police because of the noise, where I live in Ghana is very calm.
Q: What happened when the police got to the house?
A: When the police got to the house, she started attacking them and was about tearing their cloths. There’s this thing about my wife, it’s just like a crisis, it doesn’t stop for like two to three hours. I’m sorry I’m saying this, but I have to.
Q: What do you mean by crisis?
A: She gets too temperamental due to negative intakes. Alcohol abuse is negative, Marijuana is negative, anything that has something to do with drug abuse is negative. At the long run we got to the police station and she was rude to the superintendent of the police there. When her anger starts, even six men can’t hold Tonto down, talkless of me hitting Tonto. She uses everything she has to fight and destroys everything to zero. All I did was hold her at some point but it didn’t help. Even the police were surprised, she even spat on one of them. When she granted the last interview, she mentioned Ghana embassy and police. Ghana Police took her to the embassy because she was unable to pay for the damages and the embassy pleaded on her behalf. When that event took place, I covered everything. I took everyone’s phone and deleted every picture, I closed everything just to cover her because she’s a celebrity. She mentioned that she was beaten and then she ran to the embassy stark naked, and as soon as I saw that I requested for my own story and I have it here. So to those people saying I sponsored the police, you can’t sponsor Ghanaian police. This is the withdrawal letter, I can’t really explain but she destroyed a lot of things. When she’s in that state, even six men cannot hold her, even the police couldn’t stop her. So after this, she was locked up, I wrote a withdrawal letter and bailed her, I wanted her to replace my properties but I withdrew it, if not, she was going to jail. When I took her out from the cell, she said ‘if you forgive me, that means you are an angel’, and she promised never to go back to drugs or alcohol. Three weeks after this event, she took in. All through her nine months of pregnancy, she was a perfect woman and a perfect person till four months after she gave birth to King, then she started again. She has damaged over 66 million naira worth of properties. I’ve tried my best to revive her back to who she was when she was pregnant or just immediately after she had King but that’s been my major problem. I have evidences of some of the property she damaged. I have somebody around Tonto that monitors her and gives me updates on what she does; when she calls bloggers, when she tries to blackmail me, when she sends information.
Q: Tonto said you hit King your son, what led to this?
A: How would I hit King, no it’s not possible. King is not up to one year, he’s a little boy that can’t talk. What can a one year old boy do to you, that’s not possible. The day before my son’s birthday I called the nanny, and fortunately for me, the nanny was not inside the house with my wife. (Plays a recording of the phone conversation to the interviewer) I got a GMC jeep and thought I was going to be able to arrange something but all efforts proved futile. I was down on social media, I’m not a social media person but I was forced to drop comments to boost something because I was told that my wife can only be found on social media.
Q: Tonto showed several scars during the interview that she said you inflicted on her, what do you have to say to that?
A: There’s nothing like that, the only scar I’m aware about was the one on her leg. In my mum’s house, she was breaking stuffs and it got to a point that she was coming towards me, her best friend was trying to hold her back, her male best friend. It was like she was crazy, she already broke down everything: television, kitchen utensils, and dispenser. I was in shock because she has done this in my house up to four times and in seven to eight months I’ve lost over 66 million naira, but this was my mum’s house. As her best friend was trying to hold her down, her best friend is the one that gets her cloths. Infact he was crying and saying ‘ Tonto stop, what are you doing’, she just put her leg into the glass by the staircase and that’s how she got the injury. I have a video here, that’s where she got the cut from, anything apart from that is not real. (Shows the video to the interviewer) I’m a philanthropist, I’m against domestic violence, I have never raised my hands against any woman and I will never.
Q: Tonto stated that she lost her four months pregnancy due to the abuse by you?
A: There was no time, I met her six months before she conceived, then she was pregnant for another four months before she travelled, she got back and she’s been breastfeeding and she just stopped breastfeeding like three weeks ago so where’s the pregnancy from? I don’t understand. This woman told me earlier that she’s going to get everything to bring me down, because she has a foundation and I have a foundation too. Other things are involved but she’s been trying everything. I have somebody in her campaign that gives me all the updates. Even how she made all the scars in her body, she called somebody to makeup the scars. The only thing that happened to Tonto was the scars she got from my mother’s house. So I’m not a woman beater, I’ve never done that in my life and I will never beat any woman. I can never do that, but she’s trying everything hard because she knows the kind of person I am. She knows I have big plans for the future so she’s trying everything. I’m not an actor, I cannot act, I cannot cry. Her interview was like 95 percent lies; the only truth there was ‘I love my husband’. About sexual transmitted disease, I don’t even know, not in this millennium. The last time I had STD was in secondary school. At this stage of my life, STD is not possible. She’s just trying everything, I don’t know what she wants but I think she’s trying to stay out of marriage. I was not even around when she moved from my house, she came with two trucks, she moved everything and then she said that she left the house without nothing. She moved all her things, it was planned, she got another house and till date, I don’t know where she moved to. I tried to reach her even before King’s birthday but she didn’t give me access. Even till date, her family and my family tried to reconcile us for about 9 times. The ninth time was just ten days ago, and she always pretend as if we are cool but as soon as they leave, she blocks me and blocks my number so I don’t know what she wants. (Shows the interviewer the reconciliation video).
Q: Tell us about Rosaline, your wife said you left her and your son for Rosaline and that you are in love with her.
A: Rosaline Meurer has been with us since we started Big Church Foundation, I’ve known her for a very long time and she plays a major role in the foundation. My wife cannot tell me that she doesn’t know who Tonto is. I’ve known her before I met my wife and my wife has met her. It is not possible for my wife to say she has not met her before because there’s been an occasion where we hung out with Rosaline’s family and had dinner together. I have never been out of my matrimonial home for two months. We had a summit in Switzerland and I gave close to 22 people visas, all my staffs, I gave them European visas. How they got their tickets I was not aware. If I took a picture with Rosaline, maybe a group picture. If she has the picture let her bring it out. I never took a picture with Rosaline apart from group pictures. Tonto is just trying to bring out evidence that can nail me down. My wife cannot tell me she doesn’t know Rosaline, she’s major in anything that has to do with young ones and children, mother and child in my office. My wife actually knows all my workers, so I don’t know where that’s coming from. My wife is trying to show the world a negative side of me, and I’m not like that. I’m not a woman beater and I never had any issue with my wife about any woman. I heard when she said she pulled me up from a woman. It’s not possible, Tonto Dikeh, pull me up from a woman, where? Is it in my matrimonial home or where? We never had major problems, no cheating, no threats, but just a little domestic issue and she switches. She’s destroyed properties worth 66 million in less than seven months.
Q: Has there been a scenario where she fought your mum or has she been abusive to her verbally?
A: Yes to verbally but she has not fought my mum. The event took place at my mum’s house, I said it earlier. I told you earlier that Tonto is temperamental and she fights like six in one, she destroys everything. You cannot hold her talkless of beating her. She was dealing with me, I can’t say she was beating me. What she does is jack your cloth and makes sure she destroys it. What happened was, my mum intruded as she was holding me and she elbowed my mum and my mum fell down. So at that point, I thought that was extreme, I didn’t beat her, I just packed one or two things and went to Ghana. Tonto has an event, a road construction thing in Abuja which was just two days after the incident. Even in the scene, she bit my younger brother in two places for no reason as he was holding her and telling her to stop.
Q: Tonto said you never told her about your first marriage and that you have kids outside wedlock; 9 months and 2 years old children.
A: She said they called her, I watched the interview, and it’s not true. Tonto likes social media and I don’t like social media. She was all about Mr X and so on, so someone attacked her page, that was when I first met Tonto. The person called her a husband snatcher and warned her to leave her husband alone. My wedding pictures went viral so how come she doesn’t know I was married before. It was like 7 months after that I went to Port Harcourt to pay dowry. It was on the newspaper and everywhere that Tonto’s Mr X is married, so how come she didn’t know. The two year and nine months old boy or girl l have, should come out. I’m well educated and that’s why I wanted a family, I don’t do two women. Why are these women calling Tonto and not my mother?
Q: Tonto said the GMC car you claimed to have bought for King as his birthday gift is an internet photo and also that all the gifts she put on instagram were actually bought by her and not you.
A: No, that’s not true, I love to buy gifts for my wife always. I’m a busy man, I’m too occupied, to the point that I break down attimes so I buy these gifts to compensate her. I have the receipts, even the Rolex she was putting on in her interview, I bought it. I bought the GMC for my son, like I said, I wanted it to be like a surprise, but unfortunately I didn’t have access to him. I have all the receipts, and the GMC is real, I bought it for King but was unable to see him and present it. I know some day we will all be together again. I was not at home when Tonto packed her things but I had a discussion with her about going to rehab because of what had been happening so far after she gave birth to King. I think that may be the reason why she left the house.
Q: Are you open to reconciliation?
A: Actually I’ve tried up to nine times, the last time was when I invited her dad and the high chiefs. Each time we try to reconcile, she blocks me the next day. She pretends like she cool but at the end she’s not, but I still have her pictures on my instagram but I don’t think she’s ready. The car she said she sold, the Prado, I still have the original documents so I don’t know how she sold the car and in the system it’s not showing that the car is sold or that the car is missing. The car is still registered under Big Churchill HAVEN LTD. It is very painful that people would make up their minds after listening to one side of the story. All I did was love and honour my wife, and it hurts when i see the lies and deceit all over social media.
Thanks to MRH for coming through, Olakunle Churchill as you all know is a philanthropist, and is against domestic violence. I have never raised my hand on any woman and I will never. My wife was pregnant and she gave birth to King and there was nowhere she was pregnant for four months and lost it. It never happened, I’m here to clear my name and that of my company and brand. Thanks for coming through.
Q: Sorry, my last question, when you met Tonto, did you see or not see signs that Tonto might be temperamental?
A: Well, everybody said I saw this coming, that it was inevitable with my choice of wife. Facts and events were put before me; drugs and alcohol abuse, her philandering ways, and even talks of psychotic tendencies. Everyone has a past, even i inclusive, so I chose not to be judgmental. I turned a blind eye and deaf ears to the stern warnings, anonymous calls, and text messages that barraged me in the events leading up to the wedding. Even when I witnessed firsthand how temperamental and destructive she could get at the slightest provocation, I still saw good in her, and felt she was misjudged by many. I believed she would not only make me an awesome wife, but a wonderful mother to our children. If you call this love, you just might be right.
Based on the details of the interview and all you have been reading so far, what do you think? Share your thoughts with us on our comments page.