Prophet Jeremiah Omoto of the Christ Mercy Land Delivery Ministries, KM 5, Effurun, Sapele Road, Delta State, has denied selling “miracle” water, soap and other products to member of the public.
Speaking on behalf of the cleric during a visit by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), officials of the church denied producing miracle and healing water or soap, even when NAFDAC officials presented them with the evidence of the receipt of purchase.
This is contained in a statement by the agency’s Resident Media Consultant, Mr Olusayo Akintola, in Abuja on Sunday.
According to Akintola, Omoto is operating with Christ Mercy Land Delivery Ministries, KM 5, Effurun, Sapele Road, Delta State.
He said that the suspect was selling miracle water, miracle soap, and other unregistered products to unsuspecting Nigerians, claiming that they were all NAFDAC approved.
He said that NAFDAC got the hint through a series of petitions from concerned citizens about Omoto.
He said that the miracle water and soap were advertised to have healing capacity and NAFDAC certification.
“The suspect showcased the use of the miracle water and miracle soap on social media .
“He claimed that they had capacity to heal barrenness, and that women who used both products would be pregnant with twins.
“He openly told his congregation that the soap is NAFDAC registered, which attracted the public to begin to make efforts to verify the claim,” he said.
Akintola said that petitioners also submitted some of the products from the church to NAFDAC for verification.
He listed the products to include miracle and healing water, River Jordan water, and the miracle water from the pool of Bethsaida.
Others are a new beginning Mount Camel miracle water, water of life miracle water from the pool of Bethsaida and father smelled perfume.
He said that upon receipt of the petitions, NAFDAC, through its Director of Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS), contacted the Delta State Coordinator to verify the existence of the church.
“The state coordinator was also directed to take necessary regulatory action on the production facility in the church where the miracle water and other products were produced.
“He covertly bought the miracle water (25cl) for 3000 naira from the church and took pictures of other products,” he said.
The NAFDAC media consultant said that on visiting the church, subsequently, the team met the Head of Service (HOS), Mr Ogunleye Fufeyin, and the Chief Security Officer (CSO).
He said that officials of the church denied producing miracle and healing water or soap, even with the evidence of the receipt of purchase.
“On August 27, a team of investigators and enforcement team of NAFDAC, along with federal task force on counterfeit and unwholesome foods, visited the church to commence investigation.
“Officials of the church did not cooperate with the team, which prompted the issuing of letter of invitation for them to report at the NAFDAC office in Asaba for further investigation, but it was not honoured.
“Instead of honouring the invitation, they submitted a legal document at NAFDAC headquarters Abuja on August 28,” he said.
Akintola said that a document made available to NAFDAC on Sept. 3 claimed that the church entered a production agreement with one Globod Table Water without the knowledge of NAFDAC.
He said that the act was illegal according to the extant rules and regulations on commercial production.
He said that NAFDAC investigation and enforcement team had sealed Globod Table Water.
He said that the factory was sealed for aiding and abetting production, sale, and advertisement of unregistered and unwholesome miracle water with fake NAFDAC registration number.
“NAFDAC wishes to inform the public that none of these products being advertised and sold are registered with NAFDAC.
” The public is also advised to stop patronising any of these products. NAFDAC is a scientific organisation that is guided by verifiable facts before registering any product.
“In the meantime, we will continue with our investigation into the activities of this faith organisation,” he said.
Prophet Jeremiah’s church’s media outfit called MercyLand Television Deliverance Ministry, in a statement issued by Sophia Iloyd, said the Christ Mercy Land Deliverance Ministry is a law abiding Christian Church and recognize the extant laws of the land and even the NAFDAC Act in this regard, and as a Christian Association, “We are guided by Section 39 and 38 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that guarantees all Christians and our Church the Right to freedom of religion without interference whatsoever in this regard.
“It is sequel to that, as a church we have been operating and guided by the tenets of our faith and biblical injunctions in the holy bible in this regard. We have been using certain spiritual items in expression of our religious beliefs.
“We also wish to state that Senior Prophet Jeremiah Fufeyin of Christ MercyLand Ministry has never used the NAFDAC name as an agency to deceive innocent members of the public.”
“We wish to state that Christ MercyLand Deliverance Ministry was fully aware that the only pending petition against our Church is the one by Mr Martins Vincent Otse (alias Verydarkblackman) who the Church has since sued before the FCT high court on sundry allegations and matters.
Confirming receipt of a letter from NAFDAC, the Church said it was “in receipt of a letter dated the 27th August 2024 from NAFDAC office extending an invitation to the Spiritual head of the church on the church miracle and healing spiritual item by the NAFDAC Asaba Office with the full designation as referenced in this letter.
“It quite unfortunate that as a law abiding organization, we did officially as an organization wrote to NAFDAC Headquarters office, Abuja on the short less than 12 hour time frame given to us to appear and by an official letter communicated our position in this matter to NAFDAC and then also sent another subsequent letter to NAFDAC.
“We also bring to the fore and knowledge of NAFDAC that the supposed nominal complainant to NAFDAC Asaba office actually forged the Church’s receipts in other to close himself with the right to bring a complaint before the NAFDAC office in this regard.
“We also wish to state that presently there is an ongoing police investigation of certain receipts that has indicted the nominal complainants to NAFDAC office , which same receipts is presumed to have been forged and used falsely in procuring the now investigated spiritual items by NAFDAC office.
“Moreso it should be noted that the alleged spiritual items sales receipts of the nominal complainants to NAFDAC in which he purportedly alleged to have used in evidencing a case in NAFDAC office, a look at same reveal that the position of the spiritual items receipt number are the same but different in other particulars with that normally issued by the church accounting office in the sense that vizaviz : That the nominal complainants receipts are different from the position in the actual receipt booklet and receipts in the custody of the church, the dates on the receipt are clearly and obviously altered different from church client official receipts.
“All these issues and narratives as stated above, the church wrote to the NAFDAC office and we clearly wish to state that NAFDAC till today never wrote to the church or gave feedback on these issues to the church or our legal Representative.”
