Gov Fayose alleges DSS plot to detain Bishop Oyedepo, Apostle Suleiman perpetually

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has alleged a plot by the Department of State Security (DSS) to detain and prosecute the pastor of the Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman as well as the General Overseer of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo.

Fayose cautioned against any such planned move, warning that carrying out such a plot may throw the country into religious crisis.

“There is plan to charge Apostle Suleiman and Bishop Oyedepo for incitement and attempt to cause public disorder … and make sure that they are not granted bail so as to get them remanded in Kuje Prison perpetually,” Fayose claimed.

The new chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor Forum, Fayose, stated this in a statement he issued on Sunday through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.

He said, “The DSS should tell Nigerians how many of the Fulani herdsmen that killed thousands of Nigerians across the country have been arrested before going after Nigerians who merely expressed their frustration over the failure of the Federal Government to protect them.

Read also: After bungled arrest, DSS formally invites Apostle Suleiman

“Even though the DSS has allowed common sense to prevail by properly inviting Apostle Suleiman as against the gestapo manner with which the service attempted to abduct him last week Wednesday, it is still questionable that the DSS is more interested in a man who threatened to defend himself against any attack by Fulani herdsmen rather than those herdsmen that murdered thousands of Nigerians.

“It is sad and worrisome that after muzzling opposition politicians, judiciary and the press, the APC led Federal Government has taking its desperation to suppress dissenting voices in the country to the House of God.”

According to the governor, had the DSS acted as swiftly as it did in the case of trying to arrest Apostle Suleiman, the many lives wasted in Southern Kaduna and elsewhere by alleged herdsmen would have been saved.

While he advised the DSS to refrain from its plot against the church pastors in order not to heat up the polity, he called on well-meaning Nigerians to pressure Federal Government to desist from acts that could lead the country into more crisis.

He said, “Nigeria is already being ravaged by war of hunger, economic recession, job loss and lack of leadership direction. It will be disastrous for the country to be plunged into religious crisis. Apart from during the civil war, Nigerians have not been badly divided as a nation as we are under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Killings under this government in 18 months are more than what was witnessed in the last 20 years.”

Apostle Suleman was alleged to have, following the killings of over 800 Southern Kaduna Christians and other such brutality across the country by Fulani herdsmen, called on members of his church in a video circulated on the internet to retaliate if attacked.

A video message which also went viral on the internet, featured Oyedepo preaching the same message of Christian retaliations of attacks by Muslim fanatics. The church, however, said the message was an old one and was not delivered in respect of the recent attacks of Christians in Nigeria by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

By Ebere Ndukwu

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