Video: Pastor Okays Lovemaking Before Marriage, Says It’s Not A Sin
Pastor Olakunle Beloved Jesukale, the general overseer of End-Time Revival Evangelical Ministry, has okayed lovemaking before marriage.
Society gazette reports that Jesukale in a video now viral on the internet faulted those saying having sex before marriage is a sin.
According to the self-proclaimed pastor, sexual intercourse before marriage is no longer a sin. Adding that tho who condemned the act do not believe in the finished works of God.
Jesukale stressed in the barely 3 minutes video that Jesus Christ has destroyed sin; hence he does not believe in the existence of sin any longer. The Pastor insisted that he believes in extreme grace.
He said: “Sex, whether it is before marriage, after marriage or during a marriage is no longer a sin.
“Sex, whether it is done before, after or within the marriage, is no longer a sin. Any preacher that says it is a sin is an enemy of the finished work, and it is not real.”
“If you are just holding yourself, saying that it is when you get married that you want to have sex, you are just discomforting yourself for nothing.
“It has nothing to do with righteousness or purity because Jesus has already renewed our mind to the understanding of what Jesus has done.
“This sin has been destroyed. This sin that people call sin is no longer sin because of what Jesus has done on the cross.
“Sin has died and so there is no sin anymore because, before God, Jesus has become that lamb of God that taketh the sins of the world completely so that people can live a life of liberty and peace. That is whenever you have sex with someone, you enter into a covenant binding you are that person.
“So because of that religious mentality in those days, they felt that since it is a covenant, you must definitely have it with somebody you have a covenant with. If you are just holding yourself, saying that it is when you get married you want to have sex, you are just holding yourself for nothing.
“It has nothing to do with holiness, righteousness or purity because Jesus already nullified sin on the cross. He already removed it once and for all and that is his truth about grace.”
Reactions As Nigerian Graduating Student Rocks “Cheated In Every Exam” T-shirt
A final year student of the Federal University of Technology Minna (FUTMINNA), has rocked a shirt that reads, “Cheated in every exam”, for his signing out.
This is coming after a UNIBEN student pulled a similar stunt and is currently under going investigations
Peace Ufuoma a student of UNIBEN is currently being investigated by her school authorities for wearing a shirt that said, “Aggressive malpractice brought me this far”.
Her department has already established a committee to probe her results after a video had gone viral on social media which featured the young lady, Peace Ufuoma, wearing a shirt that reads ‘aggressive malpractice brought me this far’.
In a meeting on Tuesday, July 13, the management of the institution begun investigating all the results of the lady and a report is to be given within a week.
Amidst all these dramas, another photo surfaces online of a young male graduate of a yet to be identified University boldly showing this sign-out shirt which read, “Cheated in every Exam”.
According to a report by Siggy, the school authorities have started to take the “Uniben move”. They might have to start investigating into his record to find loopholes.
Blasphemy: Sheikh Abduljabbar Seriously Ill, Bleeding From Anus In Detention— Lawyer Cries Out
Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara, recently arrested and detained by the Kano State Government over alleged blasphemy is reportedly experiencing medical issues in detention.
The lawyer to the Kano based cleric, Rabiu Abdullahi noted that his client’s health condition has been confirmed by a medical consultant from a government hospital in the state.
It was gathered that the cleric will undergo some tests before the exact ailment can be determined.
Abdullahi while speaking with newsmen on Wednesday confirmed that he has been placed on some medications by health personnel to manage the situation.
“Yes, he is not healthy. He is in a serious health situation because he is even bleeding from the anus.”
“A medical personnel has confirmed that he is not healthy. He asked if he was having health issues before he was arrested and he said no. If he was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer and he said nothing was wrong with him before his detention. He was also asked if he had ever had this type of bleeding before and he said he never experienced it in his life.”
“The doctor then advised him on what to do and prescribed some drugs. This is pending the outcome of some tests that will confirm his exact condition,” he stated.
Concerning whether they are suspecting any foul play from anywhere to get him eliminated, the lawyer said, “Even if there is any foul play, we cannot say it because we have no proof. We only want the world to know what is happening and judge for themselves.”
‘Money! Nonsense, We Have Never Lacked it’ – Bishop Oyedepo Finally Breaks Silence On Sack Of 40 Pastors
Founder and Senior Pastor of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, has finally reacted to the reports that he sacked some pastors of his Church for not generating enough income in their branches.
One Peter Godwin, a pastor of the church had claimed that Oyedepo sacked him and other pastors for failing to make enough money. According to SaharaReporters, Godwin stated, in a video, that he was employed on the 28th of August, 2020.
Godwin who claimed to be a former pastor said he alongside forty of his colleagues were invited by the state pastor on July 1, 2021, and were all sacked over low income in their branches.
Reports has it that the video has generated reactions from Nigerians as some berated Bishop David Oyedepo, while others said the action was in line with the gospel of Christ.
Reacting to the development in a statement on Wednesday, Oyedepo described the reports making the round as ‘nonsense’.
He said the only criteria for their sack was how many souls had been won in the church. Oyedepo maintained that the pastors were sacked because they were unfruitful. According to him, the Church has never lacked money and yet have never prayed for it. “We are just simply obeying God and He is backing up what He is asking us to do. Awesome God,” the Bishop said.
The statement reads: ”When we employed 7000 pastors at once social media was dead. We have more employees than most states in Nigeria and we have owed them or taken bank overdraft once.
”The pastors were asked to go because they were unfruitful. Many of the churches built can never pay for the church building in 30 years. We have no patience for failure here.
”We have built more than 1,000 Churches in rural areas where in the next 30 years, they can never generate such fund, with each costing more than 14 Million Naira. We are hunting after souls, not income.
”People are confused about our Ministry. I learnt some fellows said, “you know, they are not bringing income, that is why they asked them to go.”
”We asked you to go because you are unfruitful. Unfruitful! Blatant failure. Doing what there? We have no patience with failure here.
”When we employed 7,000 people at a time, Social Media was dead. We have more employees in this Organisation than most of the States. No one is owed a dime salary and we don’t borrow, we don’t beg. Ask our bank whether we take overdraft. We are covenant bound, working in the light of God’ Word. Enjoying an open Heaven.
”Money: NONSENSE! We have never lacked it and yet we have never prayed for it, we are just simply obeying God and He is backing up what He is asking us to do. Awesome God.
”Now the next set is about to be flagged off, just certifying the landed property issues, nothing else. We have no lack of anything. The world is confused. Walking in the light of God’s Word. Please obey God to the full and watch out for His manifestations in your life.
”Well, you don’t need so much Mathematics to know a thousand buildings; that is not 1000 Naira each, that is not 10 Million (Naira) each, that is not 12 Million (Naira) each, that is not 14 Million (Naira) each. Some are 35 Million (Naira). At a go!
”We have never seen it ourselves. We just watched God doing it. The only criteria: How many souls have they gotten there? Then, build for them. How many souls? Not once: “how much money do they have?” Oyedepo asked.
”You want to see what we see, go and do what we do. But if you are not saved, there is nothing you do that matters,” he said.
HOW N10M WINNER WILL EMERGE FROM FIRSTBANK SPONSORED THE VOICE NIGERIA 3
…As The Voice Nigeria Season 3 Enters Final Stage.
By Bolaji Israel
UN1TY Limited and Livespot360, producers of the global talents reality series, have emphasised that public voting has become very crucial at this stage to keep vocalists fighting for the grand prize on The Voice Nigeria 3 series, sponsored by FirstBank, Baba Ijebu and Airtel.
To keep their favourite vocalists on the show, viewers have to dial *894*7*talent’s code#.
The voting code of your preferred contestant to win the competition is in the embedded Instagram post below:
The International talents reality series designed to discover and harness music talents in Nigeria is in its third season in Nigeria.
Scores of vocalists have performed on the highly competitive show but dropped out going through the Auditions, Blinds, Knockouts, Battles and Live Shows stages.
With an electrifying mix of pulsating musical performances, music training, glamorous fashion and life enriching entertainment, the The Voice Nigeria 3 continues to glitter to the very grand finale
Voting opens on Saturday at 9:00pm and closes at 11:59pm on Thursdays.
Lead show sponsor, FirstBank in a statement by its Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Folake Ani-Mumuney, reiterated that The Voice Nigeria 3 is a Reality TV show designed to discover and promote talented singers to actualise their dreams of becoming international stars which aligns with the Bank’s commitment to provide a platform for nurturing and showcasing talents and driving social cohesion.
Market formation framework, driver to optimally develop solid mineral sector- Sekibo
Sekibo
MD/CEO of Heritage Bank Plc, Ifie Sekibo has said that market formation framework is the key to optimally exploit Nigeria’s precious metal and solid minerals endowments.
He disclosed this during a webinar organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development with the theme, “Financing the Solid Minerals Sector through the Capital Market and the Critical Role of Commodity Exchanges.”
Sekibo explained that a fully established market formation process that would lead to having a Corporation as an integrated solid mineral institution like NNPC which allows the collateralisation of assets those banks can rely on for alternative funding options.
According to him, this will guarantee other creative ways of raising funds for financing commercial activities relating to solid minerals and viable projects along its value chain.
Sekibo who was represented by the Divisional Head, Strategy and Business Solutions, of the Bank, Olusegun Akanji, said for the sector to be viable, it requires lots of converged government interventions because for any development focused sector to kick-off around the world, it needs government intervention to lay the foundation for the private sector and funders to step-in and pool their resources.
“Once, we can collateralise these assets, whether they are under the ground or being determined, you use different instruments to bring liquidity into them. Then investors will follow up once we have established there is enough they can explore.” the MD stated.
He further suggested that finance sector regulators need to expand its Prudential Guidelines to accommodate the instruments such that precious metal backed or solid minerals backed assets could qualify as part of the computation of liquidity ratios.
“Once banks start injecting their resources, customers would certainly follow that trend. You can start arranging for sophisticated solutions like bonds, bullion backed assets and pension notes. Again, banks will have to be poised to hold the funding that comes from this sector; that way, they can open new transactional frontiers either locally or internationally.
“At the base of this, are the issues of pricing and integrity of the market. Once banks play in that sector and we have a government institution like the NNPC type to hold all these documentations, it would be very easy to establish price discovery on an ongoing basis. This will in turn attract international funders, hedge funds and retail investors. Today, we have retail bonds in the same way; we can have gold backed or any of the solid mineral assets where retail investors can put in the funds,” Sekibo explained.
Meanwhile, it would be recalled that Heritage Bank Plc has said its involvement in the private sector collaboration with Dukia Gold & Precious Metals Refining Co. Limited is set to unlock the over N344 trillion market worth of gold investible instruments in the solid minerals sector.
However, he reiterated that consistent packaged framework, which could only be held by an established government institution, as part of the layers of framework, would help to tackle major challenges in trying to support Dukia Gold’s clients.
“With consistent packaged framework, it will be easier for Dukia Gold and help in less spending. If Dukia Gold should speak of their challenges, they will speak about tonnes of tonnes of documents they have to produce. But with a unified source of documentation, it makes the process easier and improves cost management. These are some of the challenges we have experienced in trying to support a few clients we worked with,” Sekibo stated.
Picture: Fidelity Bank MD’s Visit to Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Church
The Executive Management of Fidelity Bank Plc, led by Managing Director/CEO, Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe recently paid a courtesy visit on the General Overseer, Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Church, Pastor Lazarus Muoka. Specifically, the visit was to foster good working relationship with the Church and find ways of serving the church and its members better. The MD who was accompanied by the Executive Director, Lagos and South West, Fidelity Bank Plc, Dr. Ken Opara were warmly received by Pastor Muoka and his wife, Pastor (Mrs.) Joy Muoka.
L-R: Executive Director, Lagos and South West, Fidelity Bank Plc. Dr. Ken Opara; Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mrs. Nneka Onyeali – Ikpe; General Overseer, Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Church, Pastor Lazarus Muoka; Wife of the General Overseer, Pastor (Mrs.) Joy Muoka during the courtesy visit paid by Management of Fidelity Bank to Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Church recently.
Ooni of Ife Reportedly Welcomes Secret Baby With Another Woman
A popular blogger, Gistlover has alleged that the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi has secretly welcomed a new baby with another woman.
This is coming a few months after Prophetess Naomi Silekunola, the Ooni of Ife’s wife, Oba Adeyeye Ogwunsi, on 15th April, turned a year older, and a dinner party was held in her honor at the palace.
In a video that emerged online captured the moment the queen was eulogizing her husband and jokingly prayed for the monarch to have more queens while she was giving her vote of thanks.
According to the popular Instagram blog, Gist Lover, the Ooni of Ife has wives living in the place with him asides from the Queen and the baby was birth by one of them.
The blog claims thus below:
“According to our source, the Ooni of Ife has 3wives in the palace and they want to keep it off social media as Naomi is the only one allowed to use social media as the Queen of Ooni, all other wives were warned severally to meshionu (keep shut). Queen Naomi has not been finding it easy either as she battles several side chics of the King from all angle…All of us at GLB celebrates with the Ooni of Ife on the arrival of his new born. I come in peace.”
FirstBank Celebrates 2021 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Week, Calls for All to Adopt Kindness as a Way of Life
The best definition of kindness is not one provided by any of the world’s best dictionaries but one demonstrated by how we treat others on a daily basis. Kindness is a universal language that does not require any special knowledge, exposure, skills, training or background to understand and appreciate it as a beneficiary or observer of a kind act. Neither is any special knowledge or training required to show and extend it to others. Just as anyone and everyone can be shown acts of kindness, all persons without exception can and ought to show and extend acts of kindness to others. Kindness flows from deep within us, from the better angels of our nature. Hence, the common idiom “the milk of human kindness”.
This is probably the backdrop to the theme “Kindness…a Way of Life”, which FirstBank has chosen for commemoration of its 2021 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Week (CR&S Week). This year’s CR&S Week, scheduled to hold from 26th – 30th July 2021, will feature Kind Comments Days, visits to orphanages/less privilege homes, webinars focused on the kindness theme, SPARK school engagement among other activities – lined up for each of the days. The yearly CR&S Week is a dedicated week designed to offer FirstBank staff, customers and the public opportunities to demonstrate the milk of human kindness that flows in them and give their time and resources to defined causes. It seeks to amplify FirstBank’s innate culture of giving and volunteering as embodied in its Employee Giving and Volunteering programme.
The Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Week was introduced in 2017 as part of the bank’s longstanding Employee Giving and Volunteering programme created to enable and encourage staff to give back to society through donations and volunteering. Specially designed to reignite acts of random kindness in the society with events that are tailored to reorient people towards the right values, it provides a veritable platform for encouraging the citizenry to intentionally create positive impact in their immediate environment. One of the main highlights of the first CR&S Week was the SPARK Initiative. S.P.A.R.K stands for Start Performing Acts of Random Kindness. But originally the “S” stood for “Staff”. It was changed to “Start” to broaden the initiative beyond just staff and encourage everyone else to be part of the kindness brigade. Also, “P” originally stood for “Promoting” but was changed to “Performing” to convey the sense that participants are equally involved in actually doing kind acts and not only promoting kindness.
Held between 25 – 29 September 2017 with “Promoting Kindness: Putting You First” as theme, the maiden CR&S Week was the first of its kind in Nigeria’s financial services industry. It highlighted the role FirstBank’s corporate citizenship interventions was playing in driving positive impact across various communities – all within one compact week. It was aimed at encouraging people everywhere to step out of their comfort zones, shift attention from themselves and their personal needs to others in society who have not been as fortunate as they have and perform a random act of kindness towards them. The first edition of the CR&S Week provided opportunity for FirstBank staff to give their time and resources to promote acts of random kindness within their communities and contribute to the welfare and well-being of others through giving and visits to orphanages/homes of the less fortunate and internally displaced people (IDPs). Within the same Week the bank held career counselling sessions with secondary school students across the six geo-political regions in Nigeria with FirstBank staff coordinating the impactful sessions that inculcated the values of financial literacy and inclusion in young students. Also, staff had the opportunity to nominate beneficiaries they believe are deserving of random of acts of kindness. Through this activity, Baby Ijeoma was nominated as one of the beneficiary that received corrective heart surgery in India which was in partnership with Vama Wave Foundation. The impact of the first edition went beyond Nigeria as FirstBank’s subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK also participated, benefitting people and at least 22 charities in six countries.
The second edition of the CR&S Week held from 19 – 23 June 2018. Themed “Touching Lives: You First”, the 2018 Week was intended to demonstrate FirstBank brand promise to always put stakeholders first. It focused mainly on five key initiatives/activities. First was the launch of a partnership with VisionSpring to advance social impact by providing vision screening and affordable eyeglasses for 10,000 low-income earners. This aligned with the bank’s financial inclusion and financial literacy approach of promoting accessible and affordable financial products and services to disadvantaged groups with the goal of bringing these marginalised populations into the mainstream economy, improving their chances for resilient livelihoods and financial stability. Second were giving and visits to orphanages/less privilege homes. This was the biggest platform for employee engagement during the week. It followed a needs assessment of the orphanages to be visited to enable employees donate appropriate items, and employees responded generously, donating at a scale that had never been done before. In all, eight countries witnessed this initiative while more than 26 charities participated.
Celebration of the UN International Widows’ Day on 23rd June 2018, which coincided with the last day of the CR&S Week, was the third activity. Driven by the International Women’s Society (IWS) in Lagos with whom the bank partnered to organise an empowerment outreach for 500 widows in Lagos, it provided start-up capital and capacity building required to successfully run start-ups and small businesses, to the widows. Fourth was a Career Counselling Day for over 10,000 senior secondary school students, as part of the broader FutureFirst programme of the bank aimed at ensuring the youth are empowered to be financially independent through fulfilling careers and the right financial knowledge. Fifth and final was the SPARK (Start Performing Acts of Random Kindness) initiative, which included a SPARK Day set aside in the bank for people to act within their individual spheres of influence to promote kindness. The initiative also saw the bank receiving about 200 internal and external nominations of people deserving of kindness, out of which 24 beneficiaries were to emerge. The 2018 Week was marked across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones with two states from each zone, totalling 12 states in all. It was also commemorated in the six countries/markets outside Nigeria where FirstBank already had subsidiaries – UK, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guinea, Sierra Leone and Senegal.
In 2019, the CR&S Week held from 1 – 6 July 2019 with the theme “Ripples of Kindness: Putting You First”. The theme was informed by the bank’s belief that every act of kindness (regardless of how little or in whatever form) ignites a ripple effect that goes on without end. The year’s CR&S Week focused mainly on the SPARK initiative, which had gained so much traction since its humble beginnings in 2017. A Kindness Manifesto for both internal stakeholders and external stakeholders was introduced. There were other new activities or initiatives. A Nice Comments Day was introduced for the first time and scheduled to hold on the first day of the CR&S Week. The basis for it, according to the bank’s committee that oversaw the planning and implementation of the 2019 CRS Week, is the important place of words in the “kindness ecosystem”. The committee underlined this point when it noted as follows: “One of the truest reflections of how kind we are is our choice of words. That’s why we have created Nice Comments Day to help build a kinder world [through kind words].”
Another new initiative introduced in 2019 was the SPARK School Engagement, which involved launching the SPARK initiative in schools to promote the 3Cs projected as the pillars of kindness – Compassion, Civility and Charity. The schools – secondary schools across Nigeria – were to be visited to educate students on acts of kindness, encouraging them to make kindness a lifestyle. A crowd-funding initiative was also added in 2019 to enable both employees and external stakeholders donate to defined humanitarian causes, such as supporting widows, sending children (from indigent homes) to school and providing health care for the physically challenged and the old. As at August 2019, nearly N7 million had been raised through the crowd-funding initiative.
The regular initiatives/activities were also retained in 2019. There were visits to orphanages/less privilege homes. Widows’ empowerment was organised in collaboration with International Women’s Society (IWS), Nigeria to empower a select number of widows across Nigeria. The implementation in Nigeria covered the six geopolitical zones with activities held in four states per zone, amounting to 24 states in all. Six subsidiaries of FirstBank also implemented the programme in their markets/countries – UK, Ghana, DRC, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Senegal. In all, 25 schools benefitted with 6,000 students participating in terms of the School Engagement; 50 charities and NGOs, including Leap Africa and IWS, were partnered. Over 20,000 orphans/less privilege people including widows were reached and impacted.
No CR&S Week could take place in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions on public gatherings and visits. But FirstBank did not just fold its hand and sit idly. The bank did something absolutely amazing, demonstrating uncommon solidarity with a vulnerable segment of society – children. Realising that the harsh effects of the COVID-19 crisis were borne disproportionally by children, whose education and thus future were being endangered due to the lockdown and prolonged closure of schools, FirstBank embarked on a mission to do something about it. Working with partners, such as IBM, UNESCO, Robert & John, Curious Learning and the Lagos State Government, it launched the bold and ambitious e-Learning Initiative designed to move one million children onto safe online learning platform. The Initiative was to minimise the disruption to children’s education, ensuring that they remained fully engaged during the difficult period and are not left behind by their peers across the (developed) world. There are already over 150,000 students benefitting from the e-Learning initiative in the height of the COVID-19 crises. In addition, the Bank deployed communication material to create more awareness of the SPARK Initiative and to sensitize staff, customers and the public during the unprecedented times.
What greater demonstration of kindness could there have been in 2020 given the circumstances the whole world found itself, especially vulnerable children? So there may not have been a CR&S Week in 2020 but the same kindness narrative that has characterised all activities of the various CR&S Week since 2017 clearly shone through FirstBank’s COVID-19 response, especially its e-Learning Initiative. In future, people would probably easily be forgiven if they assumed the e-Learning Initiative represented FirstBank’s CR&S Week in 2020. FirstBank has demonstrated uncommon consistency over the years to its Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Week and the ideals it seeks to project through the platform. This has earned the bank the right to make the bold call that is the theme of this year’s CR&S Week.
The question is whether we will heed the clarion call to adopt kindness as a way of life. Will we go out there and extend kindness to others in ways that will make them realise that kindness is not just a word taken from the dictionary but an act that should always be expressed to others? Will we embrace kindness as our new way of life? Will we commit to making our everyday a Kind Comments Day, thus giving others permission and the strength to do the same? Will we Start Performing Acts of Random Kindness towards all and make them feel obligated to start acting kindly towards other people as their new lifestyle?
My Village People Are Angry – Cubana ChiefPriest Who Gifted Former Boss, Obi Cubana 46 Cows Cries Out
Celebrity barman, Cubana ChiefPriest has taken to social media to cry out after his village people expressed their anger towards his kind gesture to his former boss, Obi Cubana during the weekend.
Society gazette reports that Cubana ChiefPriest had earlier gifted his former boss, Obi Iyiegbu, popularly known as Obi Cubana, 46 cows.
This comes as a kind gesture and offering to the billionaire businessman, Obi Cubana who lost his mother in December 2020 and laid her to rest on Friday, 16 July in grand style in Oba, Anambra state.
Days after the gesture, Cubana Chiefpriest via his Instagram has cried out about how his village people are displeased with him for not extending such a gesture to them. He was stated that he’s now obligated to bring 46 goats as an appeal before he’d be allowed to enter his village again.
Taking to his Instagram to narrate his ordeal, Cubana Chiefpriest wrote; ‘My Village People Dey Para For Me, Dem Say If I No Bring 46 Goats Come Back From Oba Make I No Enter Village Again, Dem Say The Goats Belong To Them, Say Make I No Use Their Tradition Play #DrEzeMuo💀 #CelebrityBarMan’
