Barely one year after his allegation that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, allegedly gave out N7 billion to the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Pentecostal Fellowship off Nigeria (PFN), to facilitate and support his reelection, the controversial Pastor and Executive Director of the Voice of Northern Christian Movement (VNCM), Kallamu Musa Dikwa, has eaten his words by apologising to the people he maligned.
Musa-Dikwa Specifically, he apologised to the President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor; General Overseer of Living Faith Worldwide aka Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo and Secretary, National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), Pastor Bosun Emmanuel.
One of the pastors he(Dikwa) lied against, Pastor Bosun Emmanuel shared his discussions with Musa Dikwa during an interview with Religious Affairs Correspondents, on Thursday, in Abuja.
Pastor Emmanuel in a statement recalled that “during the electioneering campaign leading to the 2015 elections, Musa Dikwa addressed a press conference in which he claimed three ministers of the gospel, the President of CAN (Pritsejafor), Bishop David Oyedepo and myself (Pastor Bosun Emmanuel) received N7 billion from the Jonathan administration to mobilise ministers of the gospel nationwide to campaign for his re-election.
Read the story below.. A recap for those who have forgotten
The allegation that some pastors in the country collected the huge sum of money to campaign against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has taken another dimension, as Borno State-born Pastor Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa has confirmed the allegation to be true.
Director-general of Buhari Campaign Organisation and governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, had a week ago alleged that unnamed leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) paid N6 billion to Christian clerics to campaign against the APC.
Governor Amaechi’s allegation caused uproar among Christian clerics, with the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and the Northern States Christian Elders Forum (NOSCEF) asking Amaechi to name the church leaders who, he alleged, collected the N6 billion naira bribe.
But, Pastor Dikwa, who is the executive director of the Voice of Northern Christian Movement, confirmed the allegation, saying the figure was higher than Amaechi had alleged.
Pastor Dikwa said: “It was N7 billion that was given to CAN leadership by President Goodluck Jonathan and who later disbursed N3 million to the state chairmen of CAN. The money was handed over to CAN leadership on January 26, 2014.”
“Actually President Jonathan is using CAN president, Pastor Ayo Oristejafor, and it was the CAN president that collected the monies and shared N3 million to CAN executives in each state.
“And some Pentecostal Bishop including Bishop Oyedepo also collected his share. Actually, the money is not N6b, it is N7b. This is what i know. One of the CAN officials from Abuja told me that they have collected the money. The corruption in CAN is terrible. They are corrupting the body of Christ because of Money.
“They are now threatening Christians in Borno State that they will deal with anybody who refuse to vote for Jonathan. And the CAN officials are now campaigning that if Buhari emerges President he will Islamised Nigeria, and that Osibanjo collect monies from Islamic world, and the same Osibanjo will resign soon after Buhari wins to give way for Tinubu to emerged Vice President,” he added.
The fearless gave the names of Pastors that collected the money and shared with others including Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor CAN President, Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church and Pastor Bosun Emmanuel.
“Oyedepo threatened to open the gates of hell for those not vote for Jonathan! We wonder if Oyedepo has the key of the gate of hell in his breast pocket! That will be strange indeed! Just because of 7billion bribery Oyedepo ran-mad. And the same thing CAN threaten Christians in Borno if they didn’t vote for Jonathan. And same CAN continued to blackmail Prof. Osinbajo that Islamic world has bought Osinbajo with millions of dollars, all these is because of 7billion naira bribery that they have received from Jonathan,” said Pastor Musa Dikwa.
