‘Our family didn’t want Barbara to marry Sylvester but she insisted’ – Barbara’s sister recounts

The late Barbara Tommey’s sister, Sophia Tommey, has said that their family tried unsuccessfully to stop Barbara from marrying Sylvester Ofori.

Speaking to Hitz FM, Sunday evening, Sophia Tommey explained that Sylvester’s brother, who is also a pastor, had gone to the would-be couple’s church to preach during a revival programme and prophesied that Barbara would marry a pastor called Sylvester, who was incidentally also in the church at the time.

Sophia explained that Sylvester got married to Barbara when the latter was 22-years-old and new university graduate.

“My sister fell in love with pastor Sylvester and when they decided to get married the family wanted to convince her to not marry Sylvester but Barbara indicated that Sylvester was the man she wanted to marry so we allowed her.

“Barbara married Sylvester in less than two months after she graduated from the university,” Sophia narrated.

When asked how the family took Barbara’s decision, she stated that as a family they believe in prophecy so they prayed about it and Barbara too prayed about it before going ahead to marry Sylvester.

“They became closer after the prophecy so the love grew from that point which led to the marriage. Sylvester’s family were not in support of the marriage because we are Ewes and Sylvester is an Asante so the [cultural] differences were [at] play but both of them were not in Ghana.

“At age 22, Barbara could make decisions for herself and since Sylvester’s family was against the marriage, we were also against the marriage but Barbara was a very good girl so we could not do much about it. We only granted her wish,” Sophia stated.

Sophia claimed that Barbara and Sylvester have been married for five years now but they did not have any children because Sylvester went into occultism and was therefore not intimate with Barbara.

Background

Barbara Tommey, 27, according to the Orlando Police Department (OPD) was shot several times by her husband, Sylvester Ofori, near her business front doors on the 4600 block of Gardens Park Boulevard, some minutes to 9.00 am on Tuesday September 8.

Tommey, an employee of Navy Federal Credit Union, in the USA, was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Centre shortly afterwards, the Police added.

Ofori, 35, was arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday evening. He is being held at the Orange County Jail without bond on a charge of first-degree murder with a firearm.

Investigators during a Wednesday morning press conference did not release a motive or say whether there was a history of domestic violence of which OPD was aware, citing an active investigation.

“The background story and previous dealings with them, be it through our calls for service should there have been any or any previous incidents between them will be identified at a later time,” Detective Matthew Rogers said.

Rogers added that Tommey and Ofori were in the middle of a divorce and she hadn’t lived at the apartment they shared for months. No records documenting their divorce could be found. The couple were married in September 2015, according to a marriage licence.

Sylvester Ofori is a pastor at Floodgates of Heaven International Ministries, a church based in Parramore. He described himself as a prophet and motivational speaker. His ministry has reached tens of thousands of people.

His Facebook page has more than 60,000 followers and the church’s page has about 5,600.

A day before the shooting, Sylvester Ofori posted on his Facebook page that “One thing ppl gotta understand about extremely kind, nice, loving people is that their other side is just as EXTREME.”