Members of St. John’s Catholic Church in Iwofe, Rumuolumeni Community in Obio/Akpo local Government Area of Rivers State, recently got to know that the woman whom they had known to be one of their Choristers in church was actually a man, BBC pidgin reports.
According to the report, Emmanuella Adaolisa graduated from the University of Port Harcourt as a pharmacist and had gone online via her social media accounts to publicly say that she is a trans-woman.
But members of her local church were oblivious to the fact that they had a transgender woman as a dedicated Chorister.
Some parishioners said Emmanuella joined the Church sometime in October 2022 and has been very active in the Choir as a soprano singer. She also recently introduced her fiancé to the parish authorities.
A source who pleaded anonymity said “We were having the 21 days fasting and prayers with five days spiritual retreat that ended on 31 January 2023. That day, the Priest made one strong prayer asking God to expose any person who intends to bring shame to the Catholic Church and we said amen. We did not know that this thing will happen because it was on that same day she was involved in that accident while returning from the program that evening.
Emmanuella reportedly fell from the tricycle she boarded while returning from Church that evening into a drainage and was seriously injured on her face which caused her to bleed profusely. Her church members were contacted about the incident and they came to the scene and rushed her to the hospital.
Unfortunately, Emmanuella was pronounced dead at the Military Hospital along Aba road after she was rejected by the first hospital she was taken to. Following Emmanuella’s death, the Church took her corpse to the mortuary where they filled in her information which also included her gender, which was filled in as “female”.
While the Church members were about to leave the mortuary, the Mortuary attendant reportedly called their attention to what they observed after they removed Emmanuella’s clothes.
The Church leadership, who were also present at the Mortuary, were allowed to see and confirm that Emmanuella was a male.
According to BBC Pidgin, the Church members revealed that they never knew Emmanuella was a transgender woman until her death.
