Pastor Peace Ibiyeomie, wife of Salvation Ministries founder and Senior Pastor David Ibiyeomie, has stirred widespread conversation after advising married women to avoid forming close friendships with divorced women who are unwilling to reconcile with their former husbands or pursue remarriage.
She gave the advice during a Mother’s Day service held at Salvation Ministries in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, framing it as a warning against the influence that bitterness from failed marriages can have on otherwise stable homes.
“Do not follow a divorcee as your friend even if she is your sister. Teach her, either she reconciles with her husband or she remarries,” she said during the service.
Pastor Peace went further, alleging that some divorced and single women publicly dismiss the relevance of men while privately maintaining romantic and intimate relationships with them a contradiction she said she had encountered personally through confessions made to her.
“She will tell you that men are not important but meanwhile she goes behind your back to have affairs with men. I have seen so many examples of single ladies. Some of them told me the truth that it is a lie, that even as they are in church, they follow men. One opened up so much to me, that is why she wants to remarry,” she said.
She questioned the logic of women who simultaneously condemn marriage and male companionship while still engaging in relationships with men, stating bluntly: “They keep saying the man is not important. If he is not important, why are you sleeping with him? So stay on your own if you say a man is not important.”
The cleric also warned that the pain of a broken marriage should not become a weapon turned against other people’s unions, urging divorced women to process their experiences without poisoning the perspectives of those still in marriages.
“That your marriage is broken does not mean you should break another person’s marriage,” she said.
She closed her remarks with a broader charge to the women present, urging them to be intentional about the company they keep and the legacy they leave behind.
“The company you keep will either keep you up or pull you down. Leave a meaningful legacy that you will be remembered for,” she added.
The comments have since generated significant debate online, with reactions divided between those who applaud her frankness on marital boundaries and those who argue that her remarks unfairly stigmatise divorced women and oversimplify the complex realities that lead to the breakdown of marriages.
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