Oyo govt seals Ibadan branch of Bishop Wale Oke’s church over noise pollution

The Oyo State Government has sealed a branch of Christ Life Church located at Golden Estate, Oluyole, Ibadan, the State capital.

Christ Life Church is the church arm of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries belonging to Bishop Francis Wale Oke, the National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN).

The closure, according to the government, followed several unresolved steps taken by the Ministry to mediate among the complainants, residents and management of the church.

Speaking in Ibadan, the Commissioner of Environment and Natural Resources, Arch. Abdulmojeed Mogbonjubola noted that the State Government was left with no other option but to seal the church premises to avert preventable escalations of brewing tensions between the residents and the church on Sunday.

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Some members of the community had locked the estate gate against members of Christ Life Church, preventing services to hold.

Mogbonjubola stated that the present administration would not fold its arms and allow escalations of any sort.

The Commissioner further stated that officials of the Ministry on receipt of several complaints from next door residents to the Church, over the incessant noise, through official letters and phone calls, visited the area, on Thursday 9th November, 2023.

“The team recorded the sound level of the church activities at intervals, starting from praise-worship, with the average reading of Seventy-four (74) DB (daytime), contravening the Extant Environmental Regulations of 2023, Section 58, Paragraph (b) which states that the noise limits for residential areas at daytime must not exceed 65DB.

“Hence, it was ascertained with sound measurements that the church constituted noise pollution”, he said.

Mogbonjubola said that a resolution meeting was held with the parties in the Ministry’s conference room on 29th November 2023 where the Church refused to sign undertaking letter, with the excuse to get approval from its Headquarters and report back on Monday 4th December, 2023.

He frowned at the consistent crisis, which consequently resulted in the sealing of the church.

He, however, warned against occurrence of noise pollution, both by churches, mosques, club houses, industries, companies and market places, as violators would be prosecuted, adding that the state had fully become a rule of law state, where things must be done rightly.

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