Osun Residents trooped Winners Chapel to collect food aids

Hundreds of public servants, retirees and other categories of residents of Osun State trooped to the Winners Chapel, Osogbo, on Sunday to partake of the food aid sent to the state by the Presiding Bishop of the church, Bishop David Oyedepo.

The State Pastor of the church, Pastor Olumuyiwa Emmanuel, had on Wednesday announced, during the mid week service, that the truck loads of the food donation had arrived for distribution. He directed them to invite their friends and neighbours, irrespective of their religious affiliations.

He said the food stuffs were sent to assist workers and others cope with the hardship caused by non-payment of salaries.

The pastor said, “The church has been blessed to be a blessing to others. Irrespective of their religious affiliations, we are blessed to affect the lives of others positively.

“That is the reason why the church has been giving to the less privileged ones. We have been distributing food items to members and non members. The church also distributed food stuffs last month.

“God does not bless people so that they can be a container, he blesses people so that they can bless others and all of us must be doing that.

“Rather than acquisition of wealth, we should cultivate the habit of giving to those around us, and in return we would receive more blessings from God.”

Emmanuel announced after the second service that anyone interested in being a partaker of the largesse should wait.

The pastor also announced that there would be free medical treatment for all manner of ailments and diseases next Sunday, while urging church members to invite anyone they knew that needed medical attention to come and benefit from the free services.

Few minutes after that announcement, there was a long queue of intending beneficiaries waiting patiently for the distribution of the food.

Those on the queues were given rice, packets of tomato paste and vegetable oil and some parents and their children queued separately in order to increase their rations.

Some of the beneficiaries expressed gratitude to the church for the largesse, saying the nation would be a better place if religious organisations, corporate organisations and individuals started considering the less privileged ones.

The church had on June 14 doled out food and financial aid to workers and others who needed their largesse.

The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the state, Rev. Elisha Ogundiya, after this, also advised churches in the state to begin to donate food stuffs to workers to assist them cope with the hardship caused by the nonpayment of their salaries for months.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress in Osun State, Mr. Jacob Adekomi, also said in June that labour unions in the state would soon approach wealthy Nigerians to ask them to donate food to their members.

Photos: Olufemi Makinde

Osun Residents trooped Winners Chapel to collect food aids

Gunmen abduct Winners"s Chapel"s pastor during prayer session

CALABAR- PASTOR Seyi Adekunle of Living Faith Church, aka Winners Chapel was on Saturday evening abducted by gunmen who invaded the church while he and other pastors were having prayer session in the church in preparation for Sunday services.

The gunmen numbering five were said to have stormed the church at about 7.50 pm when the pastors were praying in the main auditorium of the church and shot sporadically into the air before grabbing the pastor and bundling him into their car and drove off.

“Normally on Saturdays, we have a number of activities but the pastors prayer session comes last, it was while the session was in progress that the boys came in, shot into the air and took our pastor away”. A source in the church told Vanguard.

Pastor Seyi who is the head pastor of Province Two of the Church located along IBB Way, opposite the Margaret Ekpo International Airport according to our source has been in charge of the church since 2014 and has been carrying out massive construction work in the crouch.

‘He came here in 2014 and has been doing a lot work through the construction of a massive complex for the church auditorium and office accommodation which might have given the kidnappers the impression that he has money to give them as ransom”.

When Vanguard visited the church at about 1.00 pm on Sunday afternoon, the second service in the church was in progress handled by Pastor Seyi’s assistants and there was police presence outside inside the hall and in the premises.

“There was no policeman on duty here yesterday when the incident happened but this morning we had to request for some policemen from the Airport Police Station close by and these six policemen you see here were deployed to forestall any recurrence of what took place last night”

Mr Hogan Bassey, the spokesman of the Cross River State Police Command says the kidnappers are yet to make any demands “but we are closing on them and very soon I shall inform you on how far we have gone” he said

 

Gunmen abduct Winners"s Chapel"s pastor during prayer session

Okorocha summons security meeting over explosives in winners chapel

The Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has called an emergency security meeting with all the security operatives and stakeholders in the state following the incident of the averted bomb blast by security operatives at the Living Faith Church on Sunday morning.

Briefing newsmen at the Government Office in Owerri the Imo State capital upon his arrival from Abuja, he said the meeting is scheduled for the June 16, noting that security of imo citizens will be discussed and concrete measures to prevent any occurrence of bomb attacks in the state will be addressed.

He commended the security operatives for their timely intervention by defusing the bomb as quick as possible and assured the people of the state that the government will not lose sleep over the matter as all measures will be taken to ensure peace in the state.

He urged all Imo citizens and residents to be more security conscious and should not hesitate to report any suspicious movement of persons  to the security operatives.

The Imo State Police Command in Owerri had on Sunday defused a substance identified as an Improvised Explosive Device hidden under a flower pot at the entrance of the Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel) along Port Harcourt road in the state capital.

The substance, kept in a polythene bag, had a bad refrigerator compressor, 2 cigarette lighters and a timer.

While assessing the scene, the State Commissioner for Police, Abdulmajid Ali, alongside other security chiefs in the state said the police command got the intelligence report at midnight and immediately directed the anti-bomb squad to the scene.

He further disclosed that 6 persons who were found hovering around the area as at the time the substance was found have been arrested and are facing interrogation at the command headquarters.

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Okorocha summons security meeting over explosives in winners chapel