By Chris Nomjov
Arch Bishop Mustapha Benjamin; the General Overseer of the Resurrection Praise Ministries for Africa, cautioned the All Progressives Congress (APC), its presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari and the party’s National Leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to leave the Christians, their leaders and temple of God out of their propaganda and deceit.
Benjamin, on Wednesday, claimed to be issuing the warning on behalf of the Christian groups and their leaders, including the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Apostolic Faith Movement, Southern Christians, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo, among others, also warned Governor Rotimi Amaechi to stop his propaganda against the church in Nigeria and Christian leaders as well.
Arch Bishop Benjamin said this at a World Press Conference he addressed at the church, located at the Satellite Town, Lagos, while reacting to a newspaper report that 25,000 pastors and evangelists in the South-West were to hold a special prayer session for Buhari and his running mate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, at Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
The man of God also frowned at the allegation made by Governor Amaechi that President Goodluck Jonathan bribed Christian leaders across the country with a sum of N6billion.
Speaking at the conference attended by large congregation of the church, Arch Bishop Benjamin said that nothing of such spiritual exercise took place at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, demanding that the APC and their leaders should stop desecrating the temple of God with their campaign propaganda, lies and deceit.
“Everyday, one pastor or another is being called names, that is enough, enough is enough. I carry this message to all Nigerians. Let’s show respect for one another. Do not desecrate our worship centres.
“I stand for all the Christian bodies in Nigeria. What I say today is the position of the Church in Nigeria. Don’t drag us to your propaganda machinery. We won’t accept it, we won’t accept it anymore,” the arch bishop queried.
Arch Bishop Benjamin, while answering a question, contended that giving the poor distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for the coming elections and the insistence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use the card readers, the country would only witness just a free poll, but not a fair and credible exercise.
According to him, the distribution of PVCs by the commission in states of the federation and more especially in the Southern states bothered on alleged collaboration between the INEC and some interest, saying such was not likely to guarantee free, fair and credible election.
He, therefore, suggested that the INEC should allow the use of Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs) for the 2015, while it works towards perfection of electronic voting in 2019 exercise.
