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Tag: church

  • IYC’s letter to church sparks outrage in Bayelsa

    Outrage has trailed a letter written by the Epie Clan of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Central Zone, to the Building Committee of the Redemption Ministry.

    The leaked letter which was signed by the Chairman IYC, Epie Clan, Abia Oyisor and the Secretary, Newman Atamadu, demanded N500,000 from the church building committee.

    The group in the letter dated March 27 ordered the committee to pay the money in respect of an ongoing building project in their area.

    “We need the money to enable us meet our goals and objectives”, the youths said outlining some of their objectives as seminars, sensitisation, workshop and empowerment.

    But the group gave the church a five-day ultimatum to respond to its request.

    The clan said: “We will be extremely grateful if our demand is reached peacefully. Please, in a bid to achieve this,we are giving you period of five days to get back to us”.

    No sooner had the letter leaked than members of the public lashed out at IYC describing the development as shameful.

    Condemning the move, a media aide to the governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, asked the national leadership of IYC and its founding fathers to quickly rescue the image of IYC.

    He said: “This cannot be the direction of the IYC. I am of the opinion that IYC will issue a statement to assure agitated minds that this statement does not capture the mode of operations of the council”.

    Also, a youth leader, Esuye Adulphus, said the letter was a direct consequence of allowing wrong people to occupy sensitive positions.

    He said Epie-Atissa people were too intelligent to allow some individuals ridicule them in the name of hustling.

    Further condemning the development, Obesi Maxwell said: “This is very shameful. To learn that the IYC we all know has reduced all its standard is absolutely disgusting and quite honestly very pathetic”.

    But there was an indication that the Pereotubo Oweilami-led national leadership of IYC commenced an investigation to fish out persons behind the letter.

    A statement by the Spokesman of the group, Daniel Dasimaka, vowed that the national leadership would sanction persons behind it.

    He said: “We the National Leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide wish to express our utter disgust,  displeasure, disbelief and to  condemn in its entirety a  letter of demand notice purportedly issued to Redemption Ministry, Azikoro Road, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State by the Epie Clan in Central Zone demanding the sum of N500,000 Naira.”

     

     

    “We condemn this shameful act because it not only brings odium to the IYC but disgrace to all Ijaws everywhere.

    “We assure all Ijaw sons and daughters and various stakeholders that despite the challenges the council is facing at the moment  we vow to always protect the norms, principles and ideals of the struggle upon which the IYC was founded as encapsulated  in the Kaiama declaration of 1998.

    “In view of the above we want to use this medium to inform the general public that we have resolved to set up a high powered Investigative team to look into the source and motive behind this anachronistic approach which is totally alien to the very foundation of the Isaac Boro’s dream for the Ijaw Nation.

    “Let it be known that Council will not leave any stone unturned in our investigation until we get to the bottom of this ignoble letter allegedly emanating from one of our clans in the central zone, at a time when all Ijaws are united in our agitation for restructuring and a better Political space to achieve our collective goal”.

     

     

     

     

  • Church renovates health centre, donate equipment

    Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint yesterday completed the renovation and repairs of the dilapidated Comprehensive Health Centre, Azikoro-Epie, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

    The church members, comprising elders, women and children from various walks of life, arrived the health centre and its environs at about 8am, rolled their sleeves and commenced the last lap of their work.

    The members, who attracted the admiration and praises of the residents, came with loads of medical equipment and other materials for the health facility.

    They repainted the walls, mopped the floor, cleared the surroundings of weeds and vegetation and repaired the roofs of the facility.

    The Paramount Ruler of Azikoro-Epie, His Royal Highness Amandoko Clement, heaped encomiums on the church for its humanitarian efforts.

    He said the church came to salvage health centre and help residents and other neighbouring communities to get quality healthcare.

    He said: “This is not the first time that this church has done this. They took up the challenge that where they operate should not be left alone without showing their kindness.

    “They have set example for the other churches. I have not seen other churches come up like this to renovate the health centre, bring in equipment to assist, so this church has come to salvage the community and impact us positively. Other churches should emulate what they’re doing.

    “This is a good one, I commend them for their work and I will support them to ensure that they grow from grace to grace. I will talk to my people and encourage them to worship with them”.

    A senior member of the church and part-time Consultant with the Department of Community Medicine, Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH), Dr. Sawyer Ebiye, said the intervention was timely.

    The State President of the Church, Akekere Jonah, explained that the health centre was selected because of its strategic location and for being an affiliate of the Niger Delta University (NDU).

    He said the facility serves as a training ground for the medical students of the university’s Department of Community Medicine.

    He added that the need to take care of both the spiritual and physical health of the people motivated the church to undertake the project.

    The church leader explained that work on the facility started three weeks ago but that it was brought to its climax yesterday when the church donated medical equipment to the health centre.

    He asked the community to work with the health workers to ensure the sustainability of the equipment and the health centre.

    Providing more explanations, the Bishop of the Kpansia area of the church, Bishop Tano Agusomo, said: “We have renovated several other health centres in this Yenagoa. We renovated that of Amarata two years ago. We have also renovated that of Yenizue-Epie some three years back.

    “We have also worked to clean up the Diette Koki Memorial Hospital and several times we have cleaned up the Federal Medical Centre particularly the children’s ward”.

  • Leave our premises, church tells police

    The Board of Trustees of a Lagos- based Church, Embrace International

    Assembly, Ikorodu on Thursday urged policemen stationed at the church premises to leave in the interest of justice and fairness.

    The premises of the church on 89/93 Awolowo Road, Eruwon, Ikorodu,was sealed four weeks ago by policemen, following an ownership  row with the leadership of Foursquare Gospel Church.

    They also urged the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris to intervene by removing his men from the church.

    At a press conference in Lagos, the church’s BoT members, Segun Oluwadoroni;

    Adebayo Adio; Lateef Olasupo Olaleye and Tunde Amokade, described the the presence of the police at the church premise as  disturbing the church and preventing them from holding and having peaceful satisfying assembly on their property at Ikorodu.

    The spokesman of the church, Segun Oluwadoron said: ”It was like a nightmare for us that day as we were hurdled out and we had to hold the Sunday morning service in the rain, after hurriedly renting canopies.”

    ”We immediately took the matter to the Lagos State Police Command, wrote a formal letter to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police Mr. Cornelius Aderanti who unfortunately, has not acknowledged our letter, not to talk of him calling us for a meeting. We consider this police siege with policemen wielding guns to prevent us from our property as illegal, as we have not as a church constituted ourselves to warrant such a siege.”

    Oluwadoroni said the church had been bearing the huge financial implication of hiring an event centre to accommodate large worshippers during service.

    He said the police siege was a s a result of a row between the pastor of the church, who is a former pastor of Foursquare Gospel Church. He added:” Now, we want to state that whatever issue our head pastor has with Foursquare Gospel Church is between him and that church. It has nothing to do with Embrace International Assembly which is our church. The church compound is our property, we as a church paid for every aspect of the property and want to enjoy the use of our property.”

    “They think that putting policemen on our church premises will scatter the congregation, unfortunately for them, we are fast increasing in number. And we are presently warming up for our annual Good Friday event which is usually the biggest church event that usually takes place in Ikorodu. Even the present leadership of Foursquare Gospel Church had come to this our annual event in the time past.”

    Contacted, the spokesman of Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Chike Oti said that policemen were drafted to the church to maintain law and order.

    He said: ”Policemen were deployed to the church in order to prevent a breakdown of law and order. We are there to ensure there is peace and to forestall any breach of orderliness.”

  • ‘There will be revolt if church shows apathy towards 2019 polls’

    ‘There will be revolt if church shows apathy towards 2019 polls’

    A former Special Adviser on Media to the former Enugu and current Oyo State governors, Dr. Festus Adedayo, has said there may be a revolt among the congregation, if the church does not get involved in the election of God-fearing persons into government in the 2019 elections.

    Adedayo spoke in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, where he delivered a lecture at the seminar series of the Ibadan Anglican Church Diocese at the Comfort Akinfenwa Events Hall, Molete.

    Dignitaries at the evenjt included the Bishop of Ibadan Anglican Diocese, The Most Revd Joseph Akinfenwa.

    Adedayo noted that because governments are proving incapable of and are showing helplessness at solving people’s problems, they run to the church for succour.

    He said: “Governments are literally throwing their hands up in surrender. The perils and pains are proving intractable for secular powers that be to handle. Unemployment has reached a crescendo; economic, health and social crises have proven really indomitable, in spite of coordinated attempts to tackle them.

    “Hopelessness is becoming infectious, like a pestilence, and the world, which had made governments and technology its hope, is returning to the church for the way out of its existential dilemma.”

    According to him, if Nigeria is not successful at electing God-fearing men and women into positions of power in 2019, the pressure on the church would multiply, probably lead to a revolt of immense proportion.

    Adedayo said: “As predicted in II Timothy 3:1, which says, ‘But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come,’ the perilous times are actually here. Science and technology are profoundly incapable of providing solutions to the pains suffered by humanity. The perilous times are the existential void, agony and crises that man undergoes today.

    “The pains man underwent decades ago are little compared to his challenges today. The church is still where people frequent for solutions to these existential crises and where they get ‘spiritual fixes’ whenever they get to inexplicable crossroads of their lives.”

     

     

     

  • Unemployed man in court for burglary of church

    Unemployed man in court for burglary of church

    An unemployed man, Mohammed Ibrahim on Tuesday appeared before an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos for allegedly stealing a public address system valued at N120,000 in a church.

    Ibrahim, whose address was not provided, is standing trial on charges of stealing and burglary.

    Prosecutor Akeem Raji told the court that the offences were committed on Feb. 26 at Assemblies of God, Church, Ilupeju branch, Lagos.

    Raji said that the accused broke into the church and stole a mobile megaphone valued at N120,000.

    Read Also: Court dissolves 25 years marriage

    The prosecutor said that the accused also stole a gold necklace valued at N50,000 and a cash of N2,000 being property of one Chibueze Anyanwu.

    Raji added that the accused was sighted by a vigilance group in the area and was arrested.

    He said the offences contravened Sections 280 and 311 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

    The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the offences.

    Chief Magistrate T.O. Shomade admitted the accused to a bail of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.

    Shomade adjourned the case until March 23 for mention.

  • Church celebrates visually-impaired law graduate

    Church celebrates visually-impaired law graduate

    Members of the Praise Arena-Kingdom Light Christian Centre Lekki, Lagos, last week held a thanksgiving service for the graduation of a virtually-impaired Attorney of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Barrister Adesola Ajayi.

    Ajayi, one of the five beneficiaries of the scholarship programme of the church for vulnerable and less-privileged people in the society, graduated from law school last December.

    The elated barrister, who was elated at the service, recalled how he lost his sights.

    He said: “When l left Lagos to my home town in Ijebu-Ife in 1996, I was sighted but l became blind within three days in Ijebu-Ife after experiencing pain in my eyes and that led to a dramatic change in my life.”

    He noted that life was unbearable as having to cope with his visual impairment was very difficult, but stating “I was very hopeful and optimistic about life in spite of the odds around me.”

    Narrating how he met Pastor Jummy Adetoyese-Olagunju, the senior pastor of the church, he said: “radio was my companion and I had him preach on his regular Kingdom Life Family programme on Eko FM and I called his number and narrated my story to him and he requested to see me and he came to my rescue at a crucial time in my life.”

    Continuing, he said: “Pastor paid my way through primary and secondary school and supported me greatly during my law school programme in a way that amazed me.

     

    “I was in primary six when my eyes went bad and it was very difficult for me to cope in school and I had to seek for help and help came. God gave me divine wisdom when, initially, reading with braille proved difficult, but today all is history.”

    On why he studied law, he said: “l want to be a voice for the voiceless, defenceless and the vulnerable people in the society.”

    Adetoyese-Olagunju, who was grateful to God for the successful completion of Ajayi’s programme, said: “We are only pencils in the hands of God. Our mission is to help the needy and provide safe haven to the less-privileged in the society.”

    He appealed to well-meaning organisations and government institutions to provide employment opportunities for physically challenged people like Ajayi.

  • Church invites couples to bring guns in for blessing

    Church invites couples to bring guns in for blessing

    The World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, U.S.  has invited couples to bring their assault rifles in to be blessed.

    Members of the church have been asked to attend the service with AR-15 semi-automatic rifle or equivalents such as an AK semi-automatic rifle.

    An AR-15 was the weapon used by Nikolas Cruz when he opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland north of Miami on Valentine’s Day, killing 17 people.

    Tim Elder, the church’s director of world missions, told Newswatch 16 that AR-15 rifles symbolise the “rod of iron” mentioned in the book of Revelation.

    “Now more than ever, good people need to stand up and claim for themselves the tools that can be used to stop that kind of evil,” he said.

    The ceremony in Wayne County was planned before the mass shooting.

    Elder said the church was not planning to reschedule or cancel the event.

    Up to 600 people are expected to attend the ceremony next Wednesday.

    “This will be a big thing for us. It’s a new stage for us because it incorporates the rod of iron, as it is in Revelations,” Elder added.

    “Revelations talks about the returning Christ ruling with the rod of iron.”

    Wallenpaupack South Elementary School, which is located near to the church, is deciding what it will do in response to the ceremony.

    Meanwhile, leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) are accusing supporters of gun control of exploiting the mass school shooting in Florida to promote an anti-gun agenda.

    NRA leader Wayne LaPierre spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He said Democrats like House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Connecticut senator Chris Murphy are eager to blame theNRA and are calling “for even more government control”.

    He said opponents of gun rights want to “sweep under the carpet” the failure of school safety, families “and even the unbelievable failure of the FBI” to prevent the shootings.

    US President Donald Trump tweeted his backing of the NRA.

    Source: https://www.premierchristianradio.com/News/World/Church-invites-couples-to-bring-guns-in-for-blessing

  • ‘God told me to build church on someone’s land’

    The Federal Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID), Alagbon, Ikoyi, Lagos yesterday brought a Christian cleric, Felix Moses, before an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court for allegedly building on someone’s land.

    Moses, pastor of Capernaum Christian Ministry located at 34/36, Tijani Ashogbon Street, Bariga, was docked on a one-count charge of unlawful encroachment on a property.

    According to the police, Moses built the church in 2016 on land owned by the complainant, Mr. Toyin Omonijo.

    Prosecuting Counsel Henry Obiazi, a Superintendent, said the defendant built his church on the land without the complainant’s permission.

    According to the prosecutor, Moses told the police that “God Almighty directed him to build a church on the land.”

    Obiazi said the offence contravened Section 4(5) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

    Moses pleaded not guilty.

    Chief Magistrate O.O Oshin granted him N250,000 bail with one surety in the like sum.

    She remanded the defendant in Ikoyi Prison till he fulfills the bail conditions.

    The case continues on March 27.

  • Church holds entrepreneurship programme for youth

    THE World New Revival Ministries International, in collaboration with Apostolic Pearl Cooperative Multipurpose Society Ltd, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), has concluded arrangements to host free one-week vocational skill acquisition programme on Monday15th— Saturday 20th  at 5, Pipeline Road, Pipeline Bus stop, Opposite Ejigbo Police Station, Ejigbo, Lagos.

    According to The General Overseer of The World New Revival Ministries International, Pastor (Mrs.) Margaret Oluwayemisi Durojaiye, whose MOD Foundation is the brain behind the initiative, “the workshop is geared towards training people in different vocational skills in Ejigbo/Idimu/Egbe and its environs, through skill acquisition, which will also help eradicate poverty by creating more job opportunities.”

    The training is tagged Be Skillful, Creating jobs, Empowering Lives, Become a pride to the gospel. Durojaiye said, “our mission is to train at least 100 people in different vocations and skills, as well as raise great entrepreneurs to the glory of God,” adding that “Startup funds would be available for best students at the programme, as they register to become members of Apostolic Pearl Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited.”

  • Church, hospital promote blood donation

    Church, hospital promote blood donation

    It is not often that churches hold blood donation campaigns. But the Catholic Church of the Annuciation, FESTAC, Lagos blazed the trail when its members came out to donate blood. Joseph Eshanokpe reports

    Catholic Church of the Annuciation, FESTAC Town, and Mother and Child Hospital, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos have held a blood donation camp at the church’s premises.

    The Dean of FESTAC Deanry and Parish Priest, Rev Father Jerome Akinyemi, said the church embarked on the campaign to save lives. ”Blood is life,” he said, adding that Jesus saved lives and that it was imperative for Christians to do so by donating blood. He said he was glad that his church had keyed in to this teaching of Jesus. ”As we save lives, ours will not be lost,” he prayed.

    Catholic Men Organisation (CMO) Chairman Prof Nat Ofo, who was the first donor at the event, described the programme as a huge success, adding that it would be good for it to be held quarterly.

    He compared blood donation to alms giving, saying both are works of charity. ”It is not only when you give money that you are charitable. When you donate blood, you are also giving,” he said.

    The Medical Officer in charge of the camp, Dr Peter Aderz, said the camp was held to boost the government’s blood bank. He explained: ”When you go to the hospital,you will see many children and women in need of blood. That is why the church is partnering the government to provide blood for the ‘needy’ at a low price. ”It is the poorest that need blood.We would have advised the government to give out the blood free but for the cost it would incur in screening it,” he said.

    Aderza said this was the church’s first blood donation drive and hoped it would generate between 50 and 100 Spints. ”In Catholic Church we believe in blood donation. Anything that can give life, we support it,” he said.

    The medic also said not everyone could donate blood, no matter his interest. Before anybody could donate, he explained, he would be screened for diseases, weight, blood sugar level, among others, to know if he is qualified. He listed the merits of blood donation as removal of excess blood, free radicals and cholestrol from the body. He dismissed insinuations that blood donation could lead to sudden death, sickness or blood shortage.  ”Once one donates, within three weeks, he would regain his blood level,” he said.

    Miss Odunola Olaoke of Mother and Child Hospital described the response of the parishioners to the campaign as great. She said though the camp was open to the public, only the church members and their priest responded. She said the aim of the camp was to tackle the problem of blood shortage in the government hospitals, and that people should not be afraid to donate.  And as they do so, she said, their sicknesses would be cured.

    Ms Olaoke also said the blood would be handed over to the officials of the state Blood Transfusion Service (BTS), who were at the event, for screening and distribution.

    During the handing over, Rev Fr Akinyemi thanked the hospital management for the collaboration and for making the camp a success. ”Give our regards to the hospital’s management. We appreciate them. Step up the good work you are doing,” he added.