Monday, January 17, 2011

Congregation seals off church over pastor's transfer

Femi Makinde

Churchgoers, the choir and the pastors of the Christ Apostolic Church in Dalimore area of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, were on Sunday prevented from having the usual Sunday service as some aggrieved members locked them out.


Protesting church members

Residents of the area were treated to a free show as the members who were protesting the transfer of the former pastor of the church, Rotimi Oluwatusin, to Sokoto State, closed the church auditorium and also locked the church's main gate.

The new pastor and his family were locked inside the church's mission house by the church members, who also made sure that they did not escape the house arrest to hold the service anywhere.

Our correspondent, who visited the church around 9am, found the members, who were armed with placards, singing protest songs.

PUNCH METRO learnt that the protesters had gathered in front of the church before the time of service. They also locked other smaller gates into the church premises and posted some of the placards on the gates and wall.

Some of the placards read, "Restore Baba Oluwatusin to us; No Oluwatusin, no service in CAC Oke-Iye; No to imposition of pastors."

The congregation, which obviously was in support of Oluwatusin, told our correspondent that the church had been witnessing a steady growth since the pastor was transferred to the church.

Many of them said that they would ensure the church become autonomous if the transfer of Oluwatusin was not reversed.

The youth leader of the church, Mr. Gbenga Ojo, in a chat with PUNCH METRO, faulted the transfer of the cleric, saying that Oluwatusin had just spent three years in the church. He pointed out that there were other CAC pastors in the state who had spent over 12 years and were not transferred.

Ojo said, "This Pastor has just spent three years and to the best of our knowledge, pastors spend up to five years before they are considered for transfer. So, I don't know the rationale behind this particular transfer. We suspect a foul-play and we will not allow this to stand.

"The only way we can believe that justice has prevailed is by returning the Pastor to this church and until this is done, there may not be peace."

A representative of the women, Mrs Modupe Adeleye, said that Oluwatusin had demonstrated through his actions that he was really sent by God to the church. She added that the church members would not allow imposition of any strange pastor on them.

She alleged that previous pastors in the church had always collaborated with the leadership of the church to defraud the members, saying they would no longer allow that to happen.

She said, "Our church has experienced a tremendous growth since Pastor Oluwatusin was brought here. We have never had it so good. Before his arrival in this church, some of the pastors we had, used to defraud us.

"We will no longer allow that. We want to see money contributed by the congregation spent on development projects here and not to be used elsewhere."

By the time our correspondent left the scene at 11am; two hours after the service was supposed to start, the aggrieved congregation was still on ground to make sure service was not held.

http://odili.net/news/source/2011/jan/17/punch/images/pix201101174593437%5B1%5D.jpg

Na wa oh, I just dey laugh
Signs of the end time