Arewa Pastor claims he was tricked to join team that visited Buhari

One of the clergymen who was part of a team of Arewa pastors who recently endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari to run for a second term in office has shed light into how the team may have been put together.

The team under the aegis of Arewa Pastors Non-Denominational Initiative for Peace in Nigeria (APPIN) had recently paid a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari and called on him to vie for office a second time.

Many Nigerians however, especially within the Christendom has been irked by their action and call.

The umbrella body of Christians in the country had issued a statement that the APPIN was alien to it, and that the group does not speak for, or represent Christians in the country.

Throwing more insight into how the APPIN team may have come to be, one of those who attended the meeting which was led by Benue State-born Bishop John Richard Abu, said he was “conscripted through deception.”

The Pastor of Church of Eternal Life (Abuja branch) and former President (Youth Wing), Christian Association of Nigeria, Bishop Henry Sado, told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday that he was allegedly deceived by Abu using the name of popular pastors in Nigeria.
Sadoh spoke out after his name went viral on social media when he was identified in the photograph of APPIN members who embarked on what has now become political pilgrimage to the Presidency.

Sado said, “Bishop JRA (John Richard Abu) called me on Wednesday April 5 2018 to be part of his team to the Villa on Thursday April 6. He told me about his closeness to a former President of CAN. He also said he had spoken with the Chairman of Pentecostal Bishops in the 19 Northern States and FCT who is also the Founder of Dominion Chapel International Churches, Archbishop Daniels John Praise; hence I should please follow him.

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“I asked him the purpose of the visit to the Villa and he said like other Christian groups that have been visiting the villa, he wants to go and present burning issues to President Buhari, including the case of Leah Sharibu, the female student of Government Science Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State who is still being held captive by Boko Haram insurgents and a prayer conference. I am not privy to the speech he presented.

“I met him for the first time on Thursday April 5 2019, in fact I had to call him to identify him in the midst of others. On getting to the Villa, the Chaplain of Aso Villa (Seyi Malomo) was surprised to see him and he asked of Archbishop Daniels John Praise and Rev. Yakubu Pam (chairman of CAN in 19 Northern States and FCT), two very prominent Northern Christian leaders and he said they are not in his team. There and then, I suspected there are issues, I had been conscripted through deception.

“I was asked to stand in for FCT since the Arewa Pastors are supposed to come from the 19 Northern States and FCT. I have lived in Abuja for the past 17 years, by God’s grace. Some Christian leaders have been to our church before. I was former National Chairman of YOWICAN (Youth Wing of CAN). I have never turned my back against the Christian community before, my records with the fathers and God speaks for me”, the cleric stated.

 

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