Religion Archives - Page 11 of 11

#EndSARS: David Oyedepo endorses protests, condemns shootings

The General Overseer of Living Faith Ministries aka Winners Chapel International, David Oyedepo, has endorsed the ongoing #EndSARS protests in the country against the excesses of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Before its disbandment, SARS, a police unit, was known for its human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings.

Mr Oyedepo, during a sermon video on Sunday morning circulated online, stated that the Nigerian youth have the right to express their displeasure on the current state of affairs in the country.

He said he had been silent on the issue so far because he warned Nigerians in 2015.

“Every man has a right, legitimately so, to express their displeasure and pains

“I kept quiet for a while because in 2015 I warned this nation, vehemently, consistently, because I saw the dangers ahead and you can tell. The most gruesome season in the history of the nation is the last 5 years where lives have no value, wanton killings here and there.”

“Now they have faced the youth and because they don’t know who is next, they have the right to say ‘enough is enough’. Any system that has no value for human lives is irrelevant. If they were killed when they were youths, would they be where they are today?”.

“It would be a sacrilege to shoot the protesters who are not looting, who are not ravaging”.

Nigerians across the globe have taken to streets and online since last week to protest against police brutality, killings, extortion and harassment by the rogue Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) of the police force.

Nigerian influential Christian clerics like Enoch Adeboye, Sam Adeyemi, Tunde Bakare, Johnson Suleiman, have issued public statements on the #EndSARS movement.

Despite the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) last Sunday and the formation of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) to replace it, protesters have continued to make their demands known to the Nigerian government.

Joshua Iginla Begins Work on 100,000 seater city of wonders in South Africa

Popular prophet, Brother Joshua Iginla, the General Overseer of Champions Royal Assembly has began work on a massive 100,000-seater capacity of another city of wonders in South Africa, bugger than the city of wonders in Nigeria.

The internationally revered Prophet visited the site where the building is being erected with his wife, Prophetess Stella Iginla, and some of his team members. The ultra modern structure we learnt sits on a multi-million naira expanse of land acquired in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In a post on his facebook page, He also revealed that he was at the city of wonders and prayer mountain in South Africa

‘Maranatha Majestic Generation, indeed God is ever faithful. Yesterday I was at the City of Wonders and Prayer Mountain right here in South Africa, to the Glory of God Almighty.

GOODNEWS!!! Work has began in the City of wonders.The God of wonders who has brought us this far will surely preserve us

Recieve uncommon grace to finish strong!!!’’

City of wonders is a Prophetic name given to Joshua Iginla’s 100,000-seater auditorium in Abuja which was built some years ago.

In a bid to take the gospel across the shores of Nigeria, Brother Joshua Iginla decided to take the gospel to South Africa and also replicate the city of wonders in the country too.

Interestingly, Joshua Iginla is one of the most philanthropic prophets in Nigeria, having given out cars, houses to the desolate, financial needs to the less privileges, scholarships, placing widows on full time salary, to mention a few.

We are Considering Taxing Soft Drinks – Finance Minister

The Federal Government is considering introducing excise duties on carbonated drinks, according to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.

Ahmed gave the indication in an interview with newsmen on Thursday on the sidelines of the ongoing World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC, United States.

She said the idea was one of other areas, besides the proposed increase in VAT, that the government was looking at to broaden its revenue base.

The minister explained that the government was working hard to ensure efficiency in existing revenue streams while searching for new ones.

She said the government would consult with all stakeholders on the proposal in line with standard policy formulation process.

“Any tax that you are introducing will involve a lot of consultations and also amendments of some laws or introduction of new regulations,” she said.

Carbonated drinks include soft drink brands such as Coca Cola, Sprite and Fanta, while excise duty is a tax levied on locally produced goods.

Ahmed said her ministry was working with all the agencies to ensure that collaboration was strengthened in revenue generation.

“The government is trying to ensure that the work of the agencies are complementing each other as opposed to the past where everybody is working in silos.

“Efforts are ongoing to improve the monitoring performance of the revenue generating agencies, especially government-owned enterprises.

“We have now in place a rigorous monthly reconciliation of revenues and that is ensuring that the leakages are minimised.

“There is several cost cutting measures in the SRGI and a number of cost cutting measures initiatives such as innovation and automation as well as capacity building of our people,” she said.

The minister reiterated government’s resolve to sanction revenue generating agencies that fail to meet their targets.

“Mr President has said that targets will be set for ministers as well as heads of agencies and that when targets are met there will be recommendations and when there are not met there will be consequences.

“So, what was missing in the past was that there were no consequences, so if an agencies underperformed there is no consequences for doing do.

“But now there will be consequences and we will be pushing to make sure that we provide all the support that the agencies will require to enable them perform,” she said.

(NAN)

CASON 2019: Why Selfish Leaders Can’t Lead Tomorrow’s Church – Sam Adeyemi

Selfish lifestyles can no longer lead the way for tomorrow’s church. Leaders of the Church must model themselves into the right example for their members to follow, says Sam Adeyemi, Senior Pastor, Daystar Christian Centre.

Adeyemi made the statement in Lagos Wednesday September 25 as lead speaker at the 2019 Conference of Church Administrators Society of Nigeria (CASON) tagged “Future of the Church and Church of the Future.”

Leading a triad of speakers, Adeyemi emphasised: “True and Christ-like leadership is the way forward for the Church and there is no better time than today to create the future we all want.

“If a pastor thinks and acts as though all the money of the church belongs to him and that he is better than everyone else in his church that is exactly how his members will think and behave in government and in other positions of influence.

“Prosperity promise without hard work is empty. As pastors, we must model and teach the right New Testament principles to our followers and Nigerians at large” Adeyemi said.

Author, Founder and Development Director of West Africa Theological Seminary, Dr. Gary S. Maxey who also spoke at the CASON Conference traced the growth of Christianity in Nigeria and concluded that Christians have made all Nigerians more prayerful and evangelistic, across all faiths.

He said that since the ‘Seduction of the Nigerian Church’ – an allusion to his latest book – it behoves the leadership of churches in Nigeria across all denominations to rid itself of corruption and empty prosperity preaching that has no basis in Christian theology.

“However, I believe strongly that the Nigerian Church is capable and must lead the charge to rid Nigeria of corruption” Maxey said.

One of Nigeria’s leading brand strategists and CEO, Alder Consulting, Mr. Leke Alder, also a guest speaker, said “The time is now for Christians to stop being lazy. If we all take our faith seriously, we must all become theologians and take New Testament Christianity as the only model for the future of the Church.

“God has since moved beyond picking only Levite priests to lead the Church. There is a reason Jesus recruited seafood entrepreneurs (and not priests of old) as His disciples. Therefore tomorrow’s Church must marry theology with commonsense and science. People will no longer leave their brains at home to listen to sermons in church.”

In his address, CASON President, Pastor Seyi Oladimeji, said: “The Church in Nigeria must chart a new path for the whole country in order to reverse this dangerous trend of youth restiveness, insecurity, infrastructural decay, unstable economy, ethnic and religious distrust, ambiguity in our educational system, unprecedented unemployment, increase in suicide rate and so on.”

Signed

DR. KUNLE HAMILTON

Media Director, CASON

From left, Chief Executive Officer, Alder Consulting, Mr. Leke Alder; Founder and Director, West Africa Theological Seminary, Dr. Gary Maxey; President, CASON – Church Administrators Society of Nigeria – Pastor Seyi Oladimeji; and Senior Pastor, Daystar Christian Centre, Pastor Sam Adeyemi at 2019 CASON Conference tagged “The Future of the Church and Church of the Future” held in Lagos September 25, 2019

From left, Dr. Kunle Hamilton, Media Director, CASON; Pastor Sam Adeyemi, Pastor Seyi Oladimeji, Dr. Gary Maxey and Mr. Leke Alder

BIZARRE: Lightning kills 36 cows on Ondo ‘sacred mountain’

At least 36 cows were reportedly struck dead at Oke Owa in Ijare community, Ifedore local government area of Ondo state during the weekend.

According to a community source, the cows were killed by lightning shortly after they strayed to a mountain where the monarch of the town makes sacrifices on an annual basis.

A resident said Adebamigbe Kokotiri, the monarch, accompanied by his chiefs, carry out yearly sacrifice on the mountain described as a secluded place.

Speaking with reporters through Wemimo Olaniran, one of his chiefs, Kokotiri described the incident as an act of God.

The Sapetu of Ijare said the herdsmen had been destroying their farmland for a very long time which had led to confrontation on many occasions.

“We were there this morning and we saw about 36 cows dead apart from the one inside the bush. It has happened and there is nothing we can do, we regards it as the act of God which nobody can query,” he said.

“There had been occasions like that but not as massive we are having it now, to some individuals who desecrated the land. In the past we did witnessed thunderbolt attack, when you desecrated any part of Ijare particularly the sacred places.

“The dead cows will be there forever; it is part of the history in our land for people to see as testimony in future that such a thing happens, a whole Oba buried there live and heaven did not fall talk less of ordinary cows.

“Oke-Owa is a sacred hill where the Oba and some of his chiefs visited once a year during new yam festival to offer sacrifices on behalf of the community. Even those chiefs accompanying the Oba must not go to the inner part of the hill because there is a particular place where only the Oba have to enter and spend a night.

“This is a hill that the herdsmen wanted to desecrate with their herds. It is a taboo. When we heard about the incident, we invited the herdsmen and they confirmed that it was lightning that struck the cows.

“We went to the police station to report the matter and the Divisional Police Officer was contacted before chiefs including myself went there.

“Those cows would remain there and rotten because nobody must touch them otherwise there would be problem.”

CAN Raises Alarm as El-Rufai moves to Demolish 110-year-old church

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has raised the alarm over a 7-day quit notice issued to St. Gregory’s Anglican Church, Sabon Gari, Zaria, by the Kaduna State Urban Planning Development Agency (KASUPDA).

In the notice seen by TheCable, the agency said the failure to comply with the directive will lead to the forceful eviction of the church.

“Reference to the directive given by the Executive Governor on the issue of Market development which compensation has been duly paid, you are hereby directed to vacate your residence within Seven (7) days from now, failure to comply will leave the Agency with no option than to evict you at your own expense. (from 19h – 24 September),” the statement read.

The zonal head of the agency, who signed the notice on behalf of the zonal manager, did not include his name.

Reacting to the development, Joseph Hayab, chairman of CAN in Kaduna, said the association is alarmed over the quit notice.

“CAN wishes to draw the attention of the Kaduna state government to a quit notice to St. George’s Anglican Church in Sabon Gari, Zaria,” he said in a statement.

“The 7-day quit notice by the Kaduna State Urban Planning Development Agency (KASUPDA), is purported to be a directive from the executive governor.

“The notice also claimed that compensation had been duly paid to the church. We are alarmed and apprehensive about this if it is true that it is a directive from the governor. But we doubt much if the governor issued the directive.”

Hayab said the state government made moves to relocate the church over the expansion of the market at Sabon Gari in February 2016 but later realised that the church had all valid documents and that even some parts of the market are on the church’s land.

Hayab said following the presentation of the necessary documents by the church, the matter was resolved amicably.

He called on the governor to immediately investigate the quit notice from KASUPDA and take prompt action.

”This will go a long way in allaying fears and apprehension among Christians in the state and the nation at large,” he said.

“This unfortunate notice is coming just a few weeks after the alarm about the purported demolition of a mosque in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, which, upon investigations, was later confirmed to be false. We urge the governor to take a step to avert that kind of situation in Kaduna.”

Muyiwa Adekeye, spokesman of Nasir el-Rufai, the governor, said he was not aware of the notice.

“I am not aware of the notice you are talking about. What I know, and is a fact that is very much in the public domain, it is that the Kaduna State government is redeveloping and expanding markets, including the Sabon-Gari market” Adekeye said via a text message.

No official of KASUPDA could be reached for comments as of the time this report was filed

110 years old St. Gregory’s Anglican Church, Sabon Gari, Zaria

Shi’ites defy police, hold Ashura procession in Wuse

…Security operatives lock down Abuja-Keffi road

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has carried out its Ashura mourning procession in Abuja, in defiance of the police.

The Ashura procession is an annual religious ritual carried out by the Shia Islamic sect all over the world on September 10.

Participants including men, women, and children held the procession for a few kilometres from Berger Roundabout to Wuse, and hurriedly concluded the exercise to avoid a confrontation with security personnel.

Our correspondent learnt that the procession which commenced by 8 this morning lasted for about 25 minutes and caused traffic gridlock in the commercial area, but there was no report of any incident.

None of the IMN spokesmen could be reached for comment as calls to their phones rang out.

The Shi’ites had on Monday raised the alarm that the police were planning to attack the Ashura mourning procession holding in Abuja and other cities in the North.

The Shi’ites said that they had credible information that the force “will employ extrajudicial approach to assault, arrest or kill whoever participates in the religious event.”

A member of the Academic Forum of the IMN, Abdullahi Musa, who said this in a statement, invited religious leaders, Civil Society Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, the international community, journalists and the public to monitor the conduct of the Ashura procession “in order to expose those that are so desperate to cause violence for a pittance.”

In their reaction, the police had warned the sect against carrying out the procession, stating that by virtue of the Terrorism (Prevention) Proscription Order Notice of July 26, 2019, the IMN had been proscribed in the country and cannot hold any procession.

The force spokesman, DCP Frank Mba, said any gathering by the Shi’ites “will be treated as a gathering in the advancement of terrorism.”

Meanwhile, security operatives have locked down the Abuja-Keffi Expressway apparently to prevent the Shi’ite members living in that axis from coming to the city centre to participate in the procession.

The PUNCH gathered that the checkpoint mounted by a joint team of police and other security agencies barricaded the road.

A journalist, Richard Oludare, said he had been trapped in the ensuing traffic gridlock for over two hours.

“I left the house by 6:00 a.m., but it’s past 8:00 a.m. and I’m still trapped in the traffic jam. The security agencies blocked the road and only allowed a vehicle to pass at a time,” he said in frustration.