Lockdown violation: Celestial Pastor alleges foul play

Thursday, April 30, 2020 11:36 am

Pastor Elijah Amos

A Pastor of Celestial Church of Christ in Ogun, Elijah Amos is seeking justice over what he described as attempt by his neighbour to implicate him with allegation that he has been holding church services despite the lock down directive of the state government.

The neighbour, who claimed he lived close to the Amos’ church, located in Asero Estate of Abeokuta had in a recent post of the social media alleged that the church has been holding services every Sunday despite government’s lockdown and social distancing directives.

The report on the social media went viral, prompting the State Police Command to deploy its operative in company of the COVID-19 Task Force and some journalists to the area on Sunday , April 26 at 10:45 am to confirm the veracity of the allegation.

The pastor was promptly arrested alongside his disciples and was later released.

But Elijah who is living inside the church with some of his disciples debunked the allegation in a chat with journalists on Wednesday, insisting that since the inception of the lockdown, he had directed his members to worship at home.

He claimed that the allegation against him may be due to the fact that his neighbor has been complaining that he doesn’t want to see any white garment church in the vicinity.

He added that the neighbour had previously threatened to do anything possible to send the church out of the area.

His words “A church member called me and said he saw something on Facebook- that the neighbour living behind my church said he would expose the church to the world, that we are holding services. The DPO of Obantoko came around on Sunday, looking around to see if we were holding service.

“He told me that someone just informed the Commissioner that there was service going on. When he found out there was nothing going on, he left. The following morning, around 6:30 am I saw two men hanging around my fence, on interrogation they confessed to be press men, saying they were sent by a friend to spy on me.”

Some residents of the area who spoke on condition of anonymity also stressed that the church, since the lockdown order has not held service.

When contacted the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Obantoko Police Division, Beyioku Kehinde, who confirmed that he visited the church several times for investigation, there was no service going on, contrary to the claims on the social media.

The DPO added that he was also at the church premises on Sunday morning, April 26 for another investigation but there was no service going on in the church.

According to the DPO, after the investigation, he visited the neighbour who leveled the allegation and he told him that there was no reason for church to be in that area.

He said “The first time I went there I only met the pastor and his family member, no church service was going on. On Sunday again I went there and nothing of such was going on. When I interviewed the man (the neighbour), he said that the church was not supposed to be there, but I told him that was not my business.”

The DPO added “It’s like there’s an unsettled dispute between them. Based on what the man complained about, we did not find the pastor guilty. All I discovered was that the man was only trying to implicate the pastor.”

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One Comment

Kol gangan says:

May 1, 2020 at 8:46 am

It’s best to understand that your religion should be personalised. The neirbor complaining is concerned that the Church is/has been a nuisance to the neirborhood. Today’s Church is no longer about Solemn contemplative queit worship. It has become a parade of loud ear shattering musical jamboree, reckless dance, pretended staged miracles, puerile ceremonies and a glorified social club. When you wrongly locate that category of institution in a supposedly queit residential neirborhood, the neirbors that don’t complain have their brains influenced by the fear to question things stamped with the seal of antiquity.