Churches in Lagos State yesterday dedicated time to seek the face of God concerning next Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
They prayed for peaceful and non-violent exercise, as the pastors cautioned members on how to behave during and after the elections.
Many of the services monitored involved special prayer sessions for peace to reign before, during and after the elections.
At Global Harvest Church, Maryland, Reverend Victor Adeyemi led members to pray for peaceful polls and the enthronement of the will of God over Nigeria.
The 10th year anniversary service witnessed special prayer sessions in the two services for the will of God to reign over the elections.
At Daystar Christian Centre, Oregun, Pastor Sam Adeyemi urged members of the church to pray for “those who will fulfill God’s agenda to be elected .”
Pastor Adeyemi told his 20,000-strong congregation to pray against violence, bloodshed and for the will of God over the country.
At St. Gerald Catholic Church Soluyi, Gbagada, the cleric urged the faithful to vote according to their conscience.
He warned members against getting involved in arguments with anyone at the polling station and also to desist from any form of campaign for any candidate or political party on the day of the election.
However, it was a more dramatic scenario at the Living Faith Church, also known as Winners Chapel, where Presiding Bishop David Oyedepo asked members to come with their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
The cards were used as a “point of contact” to pray for peace.
Bishop Oyedepo asked the congregation to pray that God’s will be done at all levels of the polls.
He prayed for wisdom for those in charge of the election, particularly officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
At many of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) branches in Lagos, prayers were said for the elections. One of the pastors, who declined to be named, urged the members to be conversant with the electoral laws before, during and after the elections, while he also urged them to get their PVCs.
Former vice presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the founder of Latter Rain Assembly (LRA), Pastor Tunde Bakare, prayed for the success of the election.
He said: “May God Almighty ensure that Nigeria wins; may neither of the gladiators win, if the price we must pay for winning an election is losing the nation.”
Pastor Bakare also took a swipe at some delegates to the Constitutional Conference for “flagrantly distorting the truth,” about the outcome of the conference.
The cleric, who was an Ogun State delegate to the confab, berated Afenifere leader Chief Ayo Adebanjo, who was part of the Lagos camp, for saying he would not forgive the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, for what he (Buhari) did in the past.
He said: “The Yoruba went to the National Conference as a group, but when the March 19 meeting took place, the Deputy Chairman was in Ibadan, while the Secretary, that led the group to the confab, was in Lagos.
“The meeting in Lagos had a stain of unforgiveness. When I heard such sentiments as ‘I will never forgive General Muhammadu Buhari for what he did as a former head of state’, my heart sank.”
The pastor criticised the Ibadan group for “double standard”, saying it erred when it stated that the Yoruba did not achieve their aims at the confab.
Clearing the air on his earlier call for election postponement, Bakare noted that it was not a call for Interim National Government.
The cleric said he had lifted the “embargo” he placed on the election, noting that the “issues have been ameliorated by the shift” of the polls by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
