Ace Christian dramatist and founder of Mount Zion Faith Ministries, Mike Bamiloye has slammed men of God who are in the habit of inviting comedians to crack jokes during church events.

The respected gospel actor-cum-director said it was not funny at all for pastors to bring in comedians who end up mocking God, the Bible and the Holy Spirit in the name of cracking jokes.

Bamiloye, in a statement, said such act should be discouraged and it is ungodly and uncalled for in the body of Christ.

He said,

“As per COMEDY in Church meetings and events. I want to address Christians – ALL denominations – this morning without prejudice!

“For a long while I have questioned the inclusion of comedy in church events. What do I question? The fact that the comedians brought in are allowed to make jokes of scriptures, the Blood of Jesus, speaking in tongues, the throne of grace etc.’ And we sit there laughing!

“What are we laughing at? What is funny? Mocking God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Word is funny?

“We hear of other religions where they are obsessed with protecting the image of their Leader and we gleefully allow people to mock our Leader Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and thereby indirectly mocking God!!! They look at us with disdain because we are bad ambassadors of our faith!

“Lukewarmness and cynicism has crept slowly into the life of Christians. We pull ourselves down publicly, abuse leaders of the gospel will glee, mock certain commandments of God. Yet, when we run into trouble who do we call upon???

“Bible has already stated that towards the end times there will be mockers of the gospel and preachers doing wrong. Why are you allowing yourself to be one of them?

“We come into Facebook and spew out curses and abuses – mock the commandments especially when it comes to forgiveness issues and honour of parents etc and we go to church and lift up hands and voices to who? He who we mock with disobedience? We quickly mouth monotonous words – God is in control! Amen! It is well! Praise God etc but do we honour him with our words and actions??? We are humans and not perfect but should we mock the core components of our faith?

“I was thinking of all this since Friday when a comedian was allowed in the stage at the experience to use a scripture in the Old Testament as foundation for his jokes! I laughed also but later felt badly convicted and I said I will speak out – then this morning I received the message below in my Whatsapp and I said – somebody feels the same way I do. It is long but worth reading.

“Those of us here who believe these jesters and comedians are desecrating the altar of God should rise and oppose this when they are brought to your church.

“Go meet the leadership in office and express your mind. Once we don’t create an atmosphere of seriousness and worship, what right do we have to expect the manifestation of God’s glory in our midst? Jesters and mockers can go to wedding receptions and wherever.

“Yet if you mock or despise holy things, you can still come under God’s judgment. They joke about the blood of Jesus, the name of Jesus, choruses etc. When they are in trouble and need the blood or the Name, how can it work for them?” Bamiloye asked.

The Church Leadership of Reigners Bible Church has provided details of the incident in which many people died after their church building collapsed.

In a press statement issued by Pastor Anietie Daniel, the Church’s resident Pastor described the incident as unfortunate.

The Church leadership also debunked rumours making rounds that the bishopric enthronment went ahead immediately after the building collapsed.

READ FULL STATEMENT BELOW:

“The very sad and unfortunate event of Saturday, December 10, 2016 as the congregation gathered for the enthronement service of Apostle Akan Weeks has no doubt been devastating for us to comprehend.

Reigners Bible Church is grateful to the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency, Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel whose prompt intervention and mobilization of men, materials and resources, in addition to coordinating emergency rescue operations saved lives of so many who would have perished in the circumstance. All the persons, volunteers, security agencies, organizations, medical personnel and officials who rendered help and services to salvage the situation are highly appreciated and we pray God Almighty to reward you all.

We hereby also thank Governor Udom Emmanuel for equally undertaking the underwrite the medical expenses of those affected and recuperating in the hospitals.

Reigners Bible Church hereby unreservedly commiserates with families and loved ones of the departed saints who lost their precious lives in that incident, and holds them in ernest prayers for fortitude and courage to face this adversity. May the souls of the dead find repose in God until we meet on resurrection morning.

Reigners Bible Church has set up Intervention Committees that have gone round about 15 hospitals to visit with and pray for the wounded, while assisting in every possible way to ameliorate the hurt.

We are not unaware of rumours making the rounds, that, the Enthronement of Apostle Akan Weeks went ahead at another location following the tragic incident.. Reigners Bible Church hereby refutes and debunks this false, misleading and unfounded assumption and for the records declare that, the enthronement ceremony has been postponed indefinitely.

Reigners Bible Church will cooperate with the State Government which has ordered an inquiry into the collapse of the structure and hereby appeals for calm, patience and intercession from the people of God in these difficult and trying times.

Finally, we thank the countless friends, well wishers and men of goodwill who have called, visited and prayed for the church for their show of solidarity, support and encouragement which has tremendously buoyed our hope to stay strong in the face of this most severe adversity.

We reiterate our uncompromising faith in God and unflinching trust in Him as the Living Redeemer of his people.”

Here are pictures of the Collapsed Akwa-Ibom Church, The Reigners Bible Church during construction. According to iksmoore who shared the photos, he said:

I have taken a closer look at the roof trusses of the collapsed building and i cannot but agree that there is a failure in the conceptual design analysis. The loads were not distributed uniformly and there was no support at the center hence the collapse of the roof.Authorities concern should step in immediately to avert reoccurrence.

A fake embassy that had issued mainly Trinidad and Tobago visas has been discovered by officers of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command.

According to PUNCH, the fake embassy, located at Golden Point Hotels and Suites on Duduyemi Street in Ejigbo, Lagos, had defrauded several individuals in the past and issuing fake visas.

The RRS said two Chinese – Liu Honyang, 47; Sun Xinai, 49 – and two Nigerians – Oriyomi Olawale, 47 and Desmond Chinedu, 25 – were arrested during the raid.

According to an RRS source, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni, directed the squad to launch the operation after some of the victims had reported to the police.

“Some RRS policemen had lodged in the hotel for nine days, watching and monitoring the activities of the suspects before their eventual arrest,” the source said.

According to one of the victims, Adekunle Adefuye, one Dorcas Sylva introduced him to the fraudsters.

“She (Dorcas) is a daughter to my brother’s pastor in Abeokuta, Ogun State. I told her about my intention and zeal to travel to the United States. She told me to come to Lagos that she could procure the American visa for me. On getting to Lagos, she took me to the Chinese and I was advised to travel to Trinidad and Tobago. They said I would secure employment with at least $3,000 salary. I paid a total sum of N1.3m in installment for the process, including visa processing and flight fare,” Adefuye said.

“I was arrested with another Nigerian (after getting into Trinidad and Tobago with fake visas). We spent two days with the police. They treated us like criminals trying to enter the country illegally. We were deported on October 22, 2016, and arrived in Nigeria the following day,” he added.

“I was fortunate to escape being jailed in Trinidad and Tobago for coming into the country with fake documents. They beat me up and starved me for two days. I was lucky to have been deported,” another victim, Rasheed Ololade, who paid N1.3m added.

“I was introduced to them by one man, Mr. Oscar. They promised to secure the visa for me within two weeks,” said Friday Owah, who paid N600,000 to the fraudsters before their arrest.

Lukmon Odeyemi, who said he is a footballer, told the police that he parted with N125,000.

The main suspect, Sun Xinai, said he was unaware that a stamped visa for Trinidad and Tobago was no longer tenable in the country.

A letter signed by Garth Lamsee, the acting High Commissioner at Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commission said that the embassy does not know Xinai and that the mission does not use the service of agents.

The letter, which is a response to a letter from RRS and dated December 7, 2016, read in part:

…the mission can categorically confirm that the individual Sun Xinai, who is claiming to be an agent of this mission, is unknown to us.

Furthermore, this mission does not use the services of an agent in any capacity whatsoever and has never done so in the past either.

With regard to the authenticity of the attached visas, the mission can also categorically confirm that those visas were not issued at this High Commission and are clearly fraudulent.

SP Dolapo Badmos, the Lagos Police PRO said that the Command has launched a manhunt for the agents, adding that the suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, for further investigation.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, said the police had launched a manhunt for other agents of the fake embassy.

“Members of the public should be wary of visa agents. Anyone who wishes to travel out of the country should direct their applications to the embassies,” she added.

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has said that God delivered him from the claws of former military Head of State, late General Sani Abacha without any human intervention.

Speaking in the early hours of Saturday during the annual Holy Ghost Congress 2016 of the church tagged ‘Complete Restoration’, Adeboye, who chose not to directly mentioned the name of the former military ruler, narrated how the late Head of State made plans to arrest him in the wake of his (Abacha’s), planned translation from military ruler to a civilian leader in 1997.

Addressing the congregation, which include the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and Governors Akinwunmi Ambode and Olusegun Mimiko of Lagos and Ondo states respectively, the clergyman said the encounter is an example of victory without a physical fight.

He said: “When you read 2 Chronicles 20:1-25, you will see the example of victory without a fight in the life of Jehoshaphat.

“You will remember those of you, who know the details; Nigeria was living under a siege at a particular time. There was a reign of terror by a military president who wanted to transform to a civilian president.

“In the process of trying to realize his ambition, his herbalist told him that this plan cannot come to pass because of a certain man who is praying at a place called Camp and that unless you remove that many your plan won’t work.

“And so information came to me that they are coming for me and in those days when they come for you that is the end of the story.”

Narrating further, he said: “As an ordinary human being when I heard that I was troubled. I didn’t tell my wife but I stepped out for my prayer walk but it wasn’t an ordinary prayer walk that day.”

Watch the video below:

The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has ordered the immediate arrest of the contractors and engineers that constructed the Reigners Bible Church International Inc, Uyo, which collapsed on Saturday, killing scores of people.

Specifically, one of the personal assistants to the governor on media, Mr. Aniekeme Finbarr, who spoke with CNN’s correspondent Becky Anderson, said the governor gave the order on Sunday.

“They should be made to answer certain questions so that the state would be able to get to the root cause of the matter,” the governor was quoted as saying.

The governor’s call came on the heels of a similar call by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, for a probe of the disaster.

Saraki, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, on Sunday, commiserated with the people of Akwa Ibom over the incident.

He also called for investigation into the cause of the collapse, which caused the death of scores of people and injured many others.

While praying for speedy recovery for those still receiving medical attention in hospitals, he called for “urgent and thorough investigation to determine both the remote and immediate causes of the building collapse.

“I believe that such an investigation, if sincerely done, will help us to guard against unnecessary waste of lives, injuries and damage to property in the future. My heart goes out to all the victims, the Christian community in Akwa Ibom State and the entire people of the state.”

Some survivors of the church building collapse have also given a first-hand account of how the building collapsed on Saturday.

One of the survivors, Eno Etim, who spoke with our correspondent, on Sunday, said the building collapsed shortly after a lady was called to lead the praise worship.

Etim, who hails from Mbo Local Government Area of the state, said there was no foreboding of the monumental disaster that was waiting to happen.

The housewife, who spoke shortly before she was moved out of the St. Luke’s General Hospital, Annua, Uyo, to the University of UYO Teaching, Uyo, said the congregation was dancing when the church collapsed.

She said that she could not recall how she landed in the hospital, adding that an iron bar hit her at the back, sending her reeling on the floor before she passed out.

Explaining that she was not a member of the church, Etim said she had come to witness the ordination of the presiding pastor of the church, Akan Weeks, as a bishop, because they both belong to the United Intercessors Network.

She said, “I was inside the church. Everything was normal; there was no problem. A lady was called to lead the praise worship session; the governor came in shortly after that. As the praise worship was going on, the building fell and I didn’t know how I got here.

“The iron fell on my back forcing me to fall on the ground with my face down.

“I don’t worship in the church. I worship in the United Intercessors Network, which Bishop Akan Weeks also belong to. I don’t live in Uyo. I came all the way from Oron.”

Etim’s niece, Nkoyo Okon, said she was at home when someone called her and told her about Etim’s plight.

“I knew she went to the church. But she later called me on the phone to tell me she had been taken to Annua hospital. So, I had to rush down here. I’m grateful to God she is alive,” Okon said.

Another victim, 22-year-old Emen Akpanitiat, said the building came down when the congregation embarked on praise worship when the governor came in.

Akpanitiat, who hails from Ikot Mbonde in Itu LGA, said the church building collapsed while the congregation was dancing and singing preparatory to offering collection.

She said, “It was when the governor came and people started dancing. I’m in pains. The doctor said I’m going to be moved to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital.”

Speaking to our correspondent, her sister, Emen Inyang, said the family was grateful to God for saving her life.

“I was not in the church. I called her number and I was told that she had been rushed to Annua hospital,” she said.

Source: Punch

According to Facebook page Ibommobile News, a reputable news platform in Akwa-Ibom, the founder of the Uyo collapsed church, Apostle Akan Weeks, which claimed many lives, may have his leg amputated.

See Below:

The Founder and General Overseer of Galilee Christian Centre, Prophet Williams Onuoha has predicted a tougher year in 2017.

He said the in-coming year will be tougher than the outgoing.

Onuoha was speaking at the church’s end of the year thanksgiving, (Gibeon 2016) tagged, “There is a prophet in the land,” where he asserted that with the current economic condition, inflation would be high, adding that there would be drastic change in governance in 2017.

The prophet, however, said that the year 2017 which he tagged, “Year of Laughter” would be controversial.

He pointed that those who are not Christians would be in anguish and sorrow for the iniquities committed, while Christians will be at peace for God will do to them as he did to the children of Israel who stayed in Goshen in Egypt during the long seven years of drought.

Prophet Onuoha said President Muhammadu Buhari was placed there for a purpose, which he said was for the liberation of the Igbos.

“However, the Lord told me that the governorship candidate from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Emeka Ihedioha in 2019 would be denied his ticket for the election by mischief makers,” he said.

Calling on the Federal government to release leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu for peace to reign, he added that Nigerians should not be afraid of another civil war, saying that, he has a confirmation from God that there would be no more war in the country.

Speaking on his ministry, he said, God gave him a mandate to give hope to the hopeless. “No matter your sin, come back to God. I keep telling people that Satan does not give money or wealth”

“Psalms 24 vs 1,says the earth is of the Lord and the fullness thereof. People are being deceived that devil own wealth. If you repent and come to God, God will save you”, he concluded.”

No fewer than three worshippers at the Synagogue Church of all Nations, Ikotun, Lagos State, have been confirmed dead after a stampede on the church’s premises on Saturday.

It was learnt that the victims were part of a crowd that struggled to see the church’s General Overseer, Prophet Temitope Joshua, during a special healing service.

A Punch correspondent gathered that while two of the victims were identified as Emeka Okonkwo and Emmanuel Oherin, the third victim had yet to be identified.

Their corpses were said to have been deposited in a morgue in the state.

An eyewitness, who did not want to be identified, said the stampede occurred around 4.30am.

He said, “It was the church’s annual deliverance and healing programme. Usually at this time, the church becomes a beehive of activities as people come in their thousands to see the prophet for miracles.

“People lodge in different hotels surrounding the church. And they all arrive at the church very early.

“There is a canopy on the premises where worshippers are screened before they see the man of God.

“However, on Saturday, after being screened, the crowd was much and they started struggling through the doorway to see the prophet. In the process, three people collapsed. They were rushed to the Isolo General Hospital, where they were confirmed dead.”

Another source said the two victims were identified through their phones, adding that the third victim did not have any means of identification.

“Their families were immediately contacted and they identified them. The police from the Ikotun division were also contacted,” he added.

A police source said the corpses were taken in an ambulance, adding that the Ikotun Divisional Crime Officer and the Area Commander, Area M, accompanied them to the mortuary.

As of 2pm when the Punch correspondent left the area, a service was still on in Synagogue.

When contacted, an official of the church, who did not want to be identified, urged the correspondent to forward his enquiries to the church’s email address.

He said, “Mr. Folarin, while I appreciate the fact that you have to do your job as a journalist, I also must protect my personal integrity. I will advise you send a mail to [email protected] to confirm before publishing any story.

“Sometimes, rumours get to the press and injure the reputation (of) our subjects, thereby making journalism look like a witch-hunt.

“I will also advise you to be most objective. Please send a mail to the email address before publishing any story.”

The correspondent sent an enquiry around 3.54pm which had yet to be replied to as of press time.

When the correspondent called a telephone number spotted on the church’s website, another official with a foreign accent, denied the incident.

She said, “Nothing happened on the church premises yesterday. Nobody died. Nobody. Thank you.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, however, confirmed the incident, adding that investigations were ongoing.

She said, “The story is true. Investigation is ongoing as we await the result of the autopsy. For now, we are treating the case as sudden and unnatural deaths.”