A Nigerian clergyman has given Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, a seven- day ultimatum to withdraw a bill seeking to license religious bodies in the state or be ready to face the wrath of God.
Since assumption of office as Kaduna governor in 2015, El-Rufai has been involved in taking or generating controversies such as the telling foreign observers coming to intervene in Nigeria’s election that they would leave in bodybags, statement Kajuru killings, downsizing of staffers in the local government system and the trimming of the executive arm of governemnt, among others.
The General Overseer of Mountain of Miracles and Liberation Ministries a.k.a Greater Liberation City, Pastor Chris Okafor’s warning was in reaction to the bill the governor sent to the state House of Assembly seeking to regulate activities of churches.
Okafor in a video shared on his Facebook wall on Monday night, described El-Rufai as Herod, and warned the governor to refrain from persecuting Christians and preachers in the state.
Fondly known as “Talk and Do”, the pastor who is displeased with the bill directed El-Rufai to reverse bill or be visited by the wrath of God.
“Within two years of his re-election, God will visit him. So, it is better he listens to advice before it’s too late,” the Pastor also known as “The Oracle of God” said.
The Pastor called on Christians to rise up to the occasion by praying against any war against the body of Christ noting that with the new law, there will be no evangelism.
His words: “The God we serve is not a dead God; He is alive to fight for Himself. If El-Rufai refuses to reverse or change the law, let him start to prepare for the wrath of God.”
The Kaduna government seeks to create an inter-faith Ministerial Committee to be appointed by the governor which will exercise control over Jama’atu Nasril Islam, JNI, and the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, under the new order.
The bill proposes that any person found guilty of preaching without a valid licence and other offences under the law “shall be liable to two years in prison or pay a fine of N200,000.”
It enshrines that the ministerial committee shall issue licences to religious bodies without such the bodies cannot preach.
The bill further stipulates that no external preacher can preach in Kaduna without a permit.
