Court orders church to pay worshipper N9.4m for negligence

Justice SBA Candide Johnson of the Lagos State High Court has ordered Rev Chris Kwakpovwe and Trustees of the Chapel of Liberty to pay a lawyer, Tamara Egbedi, the sum of N9, 454,000, for negligence.

The presiding judge ordered that the said amount be paid the lawyer after Ms Egbedi sued the church for broken teeth injuries she sustained when she attended a crusade organized by Rev Kwakpovwe.

While delivering judgment in the case with suit no. LD/359/2011, the presiding judge noted that it is clear Ms Egbedi sustained the injury while attending the crusade.

Justice Johnson said; “It is difficult not to observe that for the Defendants who put themselves forward as spiritual shepherds of their sheep that they appear to have demonstrated scant care and concern for victims of their January 2010 spiritual crusade and have likewise by the letter of their lawyers (Exhibit F) dared this Claimant to go to Court, the Defendants appear to have elected carnal warfare over spiritual warfare thus leaving it to the Courts of Law to intervene.”

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The presiding judge also added that; “It is virtually ridiculous for Rev. Dr. Chris E. Kwakpovwe as the presiding Pastor, and a registered Trustee of Manna Miracle Mountain Ministry and the Publisher/Writer of “Our Daily Manna” (ODM) to invite the general public and the Claimant to a programme which they expected to and which “recorded a huge attendance” and then without any remorse or conscience, argue that they only rented space at the National Stadium so he and his religious ministry owed no duty of care or concern for the welfare and safety of the guests they had invited to their own spiritual “party” or event organized by them. It is this type of reckless impunity and consciencelessness that makes many people complain about callousness and wickedness in Nigeria.

“The National Sport Commission (NSC) rented space to the Defendants and it was the Defendants who structured, arraigned and independently organized their event to their own taste and standards…It is in my view, cowardly and irresponsible to invite a guest to your house or other venue for your independent event and then turn to blame a third party for your own want of care and want of organizational due diligence.”

The plaintiff in her statement of claims had said she lost seven teeth and suffered other injuries when she fell into an uncovered concrete gutter running in between the seats of the church.

 

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