The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Apostle Suleiman

  • Laura Ikeji opens up on BBL fear

    Laura Ikeji opens up on BBL fear

    Lifestyle influencer Laura Ikeji has shared personal struggles with considering a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) procedure.

    In a recent Instagram video, she revealed that she has thought about getting a BBL multiple times but held back due to fear of the unknown and fear of dying on the operating table.

    Laura admitted to paying for the procedure once but never showing up, citing concerns about the risks involved.

    She expressed admiration for women who have undergone the procedure, questioning their bravery and asking how they managed to overcome their fears.

    Laura said: “This question is for all of you who have gotten your bodies done. Every year, I’ll say ‘This year, I’ll get my body done, let me have my son first’. So, I had my son and immediately after that, I said let’s get this body done”.

    “Three years later, I had my daughter and I said the same thing. That was during COVID and I know a lot of girls who did it during that time. At some point, I even paid a plastic surgeon to get my body done and I never showed up”.

    “Now I’ve had my last child and I still don’t wanna get my body done. Those of you who have actually gotten your body done, how did you do it? How did you walk into the hospital knowing that if they give you anaesthesia, you’re gonna sleep and it’s by the special grace of God that you’ll wake up?”

  • Northern Christians back Apostle Suleiman

    The Northern Christian Youth Network (NCYN) has said moves to silence General Overseer of the Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, is part of a well-orchestrated campaign to intimidate opposition elements ahead of the 2019 elections.

    The NCYN, in a statement by its Secretary Mr. Yunana Jacob, said the two-pronged plan being hatched by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, involves using the Department of State Services (DSS) to intimidate and put away Apostle Suleiman by cooking-up allegations of infidelity against him.

    The group said El-Rufai’s agents have been recruiting young women to discredit the cleric in a manner “never seen before”.

    “From the events of the past weeks, security agencies have been under pressure to frame Apostle Suleiman to put him out of circulation. This is to punish him for daring El-Rufai on the persecution and killing of Christians by Fulani herdsmen in Southern Kaduna,” the statement said.

    Jacob said the group was slow to react but realised, after thorough investigations, that El-Rufai’s 2019 presidential ambition was at the heart of Apostle Suleiman’s travails.

    He said El-Rufai’s design is to hound his perceived opponents and ruin every other person’s chances before the elections, thus paving way for him and his co-travellers to run the polls with little or no challenge.

    The group, however, warned that Nigerians are very discerning and will easily recognise when an innocent man is being framed for political reasons.

  • Apostle Suleiman should admit his sin publicly – Otobo

    Apostle Suleiman should admit his sin publicly – Otobo

    As the controversy between fiery preacher, Apostle Johnson Suleiman and his alleged ex-lover, Stephanie Otobo, deepens, the lady has demanded a public acceptance and apology from the Omega Fire Ministries’ Founder.

    Otobo, during a press conference held at Festus Keyamo chambers in Anthony Village, Lagos, chided the pastor for denying the amorous affair between them.

    She advised Apostle Suleiman to also apologise to his members and move on, insisting that they had sex several times in Napoli, Italy, New York and Nigeria.

    Otobo urged the police to request call and SMS logs from their service providers, as well as her bank statements in order to ascertain who was being truthful.

    She also asked the police to investigate circumstances that led to the loss of their baby, accusing the preacher of carrying out force abortion on her.

    Giving details of the hotels they stayed in Lagos when she visited Apostle Suleiman, Otobo said she was dazzled by the way the preacher showered her with money.

    Otobo added that the cleric also sent her money which she collected through money transfer in Canada.

    She said: “I am calling on the police to go through my bank records to check how he sent money directly from his account to my account. Apart from the cash that he gave me, like a lot of cash that he gave me. I’m not talking about 8,000 euros, I’m not talking about 12,000 dollars in two weeks.

    “If I was a cheap prostitute, how much do you send to a cheap prostitute in Canada all the way from Nigeria? I’m based in Canada. I’m sure there are a lot of women that need money here in Nigeria. How many women or cheap prostitutes has he sent money here in Nigeria?

    “We are petitioning the police on that. And also the issue of photo-shopping of pictures, in between the photo-shopped pictures there should be an original copy if the pictures were photo-shopped, it must be photo-shopped from something, he should provide that. Because I have the cell phones that I used to take the pictures, I still have every original picture.

    “And also, the police should check the private pictures he sent me about his penis and all that. In that picture, his hand was on his penis. I believe each human being has different hands. No two humans can have the same hand. Did I photo-shop that one too? He should be taken on that issue.

    “The police should check my passports, he took me to Napoli, he had a programme there, a conference for three days. The police should check his passport, the period it was stamped to Napoli and check my passport, the period I was stamped to Napoli if it was the same. If I was a cheap prostitute he was helping why did he take me to Italy?

    “I want the police to check on the issue when he gave me substance to drink that almost cost me my life. This was one of the main reasons I spoke out. After I got pregnant, he gave me substance to drink. It was at a hotel off Allen Junction, a new hotel there. I started bleeding, stooling blood for almost one year. I was so scared and I lost the baby. It was during that period that I decided to screen our chat because I knew something wasn’t right and he was pretending as though he doesn’t know what was happening to me.”

     

  • Police arraign Apostle Suleiman’s ex-lover for terrorism, fraud

    Police operatives attached to the Federal Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID), Alagbon, on Monday arraigned the estranged lover of celebrity pastor, Apostle Johnson Suleiman.

    The woman, Stephanie Otobo, a Canada- based Nigerian, was arraigned before a Lagos Chief Magistrates’ Court, Tinubu, on four- count charge of terrorism, fraud and blackmail.

    She, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against her under Sections 1(1)(a)(c) (i) (ii) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011 and 301, 303 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2015.

    The court presided over by Chief Magistrate Kikekomo Bukola Ayeye heard that Otobo and her co-defendant, Wisdom Godstime allegedly planned to extort the founder of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Suleiman.

    The police alleged that with intent to blackmail a man of God, the defendants unlawfully demanded that Apostle Suleiman should pay Otobo one million dollars to avoid adultery allegation at a press conference.

    Otobo was accused of threatening to kill the fiery pastor for falling to fulfil his marriage promise to her.

    The Magistrate granted Otobo bail in the sum of N100,000 with a surety in like sum.

    She ordered that Otobo be remanded in the court’s holding cell pending the fulfilment of her bail conditions.

  • Where Apostle Suleiman got it wrong

    Sir: A few weeks ago, Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, went public with information that his government had “traced” some “aggrieved Fulani headmen” to their countries and paid them to stop killing citizens of Southern Kaduna State.  Following this revelation, many Nigerians reacted, and rightly so, in various ways citing government politicization of security issues especially when related to religion. Many wonder why the “bandits”, as he called them, were not arrested and made to pay for their sanguinary doings. To many, the government is yet to demonstrate, in any form, a desire to bring any “herdsman” to justice. This perceived act of bias by the government in discharging its duties has been frowned upon by many citizens.

    In particular, founder of Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, made no bones about the gnawing state of religious intolerance around the country. He fulminated against what he feels is a double standard approach by the government when it comes to security issues related to Christians, as well as protecting citizens from the alleged Fulani pastoralists. In a Sunday message to his congregants, the apostle divulged news of alleged plan by “Fulani herdsmen” to assassinate him. He then instructed his listeners to do the unimaginable saying “any Fulani herdsman you see around you, kill him…around this premises, any Fulani herdsman that just enters by mistake and want to pretend, kill him! Kill him!! Cut his head!!”

    For this reason, the government, through Department of State Services (DSS) wasted no time in going after the cleric. This move by DSS brought further threats from the Apostle, and also sparked a firestorm of criticisms of both sides. Many accused the DSS of barking up the wrong tree. Christians have differed in responses concerning the message. A chunk declared the pastor a champion bold enough to speak against a denied but thriving culture of religious oppression. The group is, currently, agitating for martial retaliation by Christians. The other group consists of Christians and non-Christians who chided the cleric for making such instigative statements from a place of authority like the pulpit. As a consequence, the philosophy of a Christians’ response to violence has now taken centre stage.

    Was apostle Suleiman calling on his listeners to defend themselves or was he encouraging retributive violence?   Only he can provide the answer to this question. For now, I am of the opinion that asking Christians to kill and cut off a human’s head in a revengeful attack is where Apostle Johnson Suleiman got it wrong.

    In my opinion, the DSS should direct attention and resources towards gathering intelligence that will help bring the alleged rampaging Fulani herdsmen that struck repeatedly in Demsa my Local Government of Adamawa State, Southern Kaduna State and Benue State to justice.

     

    • David Dimas

    Laurel, Maryland, U.S.A

  • Face evil, not Apostle Suleiman

    SIR: A certain Apostle Johnson Suleiman of Omega Fire Ministries has been under fire for asking Christians to kill Fulani herdsmen found suspiciously around their churches and put their heads on the offering plate.

    This statement is reprehensible, appalling and ungodly. It does not represent Christianity, it does not represent me and other Christians that I know and it certainly does not represent the infallible Word of God.

    Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. He told us to love our enemies and those who hate us. He told us to bless (and curse not) those despitefully use us and PERSECUTE us! These are ‘must-do’ commandments from on high, not mere advisory opinion of Jesus.

    We see the demonstration of this in the life of Jesus when he prayed for his killers at the last moment, saying ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’. We also see Stephen, one of the early Christians, asking God not to count the sin on those who were STONING his to death.

    Anger, wrath, bitterness and vengeance have no place in the life of the child of God and anybody preaching anything to the contrary is going against God’s express commandment.

    There is no guarantee for any child of God that the road will not be rough and that Satan will not inspire opposition and persecution from all sources. Facing these challenges and being true to one’s conviction is the true demonstration of faith in God, which Jesus will be proud of.

    However, the attempt to make this clearly misguided and unchristian statement the issue is wrong, unreasonable and amounts to blaming the victim.

    Suleiman’s statement is not the cause; it is only a reaction. The cause is the continued killing of Christians, burning of churches and continued persecution of Christians, with impunity.

    From the way commentators and religious leaders took on him, you would think he was the one carrying the pogrom against Christians. Those who had cowardly lost their voice in the face of the carnage and unspeakable evil being perpetrated against Christians are suddenly animated and waxing lyrical after Suleiman’s statement.

    This amounts to changing the subject. No, the subject is wanton killing of Christians. I watched a video recording that has gone viral in which people were lined up and literally slaughtered like goats and dumped in a pit. I began to wonder how this could be happening in Nigeria, with such impunity. I didn’t hear the foul mouthed commentators or the religious leaders condemning the Apostle and asking for his arrest, talk about it. Mum had been the word from security agencies chasing Suleiman all over the place.

    We have lost the capacity to be outraged at such unspeakable evil but have been loudest on blaming the victims and taking on the trivial and inconsequential.

     

    • Sola Fasure,

    Osogbo, Osun State.

  • Video: My arrest will shut Nigeria – Apostle Suleiman

    Video: My arrest will shut Nigeria – Apostle Suleiman