Let me start by saying that I will not dignify Oyedepo by calling him a pastor, as he is not one. Jesus Christ told us who a pastor is: he leaves 99 sheep to look for one missing lamb!
Jesus Christ chased away moneychangers and bussinessmen from the temple, whipping and flogging them as they fled. With bosterious wind blowing away their flowing gowns, he upturned their trays and tables and fling their wares! That is Jesus, the true Pastor!
Mr. David Oyedepo, the General Overseer and Founder of Winners' Chapel, Covenant University and Landmark University among many other institutions in Nigeria, is undoubtedly a cult-hero to many Nigerian pentecostal (perhaps pente-rascal) Christians. Mr. Oyedepo owns the largest Church Auditorium in the world. Besides these, he has no other claim to fame!
In Nigeria, this credential is more than that of Professor Toyin Falola, an Ibadan-born, OAU Ile-Ife-trained History professor who has written and edited more than 200 African History books. It is more than that of Prof Wole Soyinka, the nobel laurate! It is more than those of Achebe and Ayi Kwei Ama, the literature greats!!
However, prior to now, Mr. Oyedepo stopped students of his university from graduating for being HIV positive and for not being virgins. Only pressure from the civil society pressured NUC to stop him!
Among many other attrocities, many who work in his university have claimed that he, like Jesus, also washed heads and feet of lecturers and staff of the university (and taking the water away). Those who allow him to wash their feet and head are paid a 'worship fee' while those who will not are not paid.
As these videos show, Mr. Oyedepo has been slapping and tramping on people's rights for very long and he often boasts of this special service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedd%E2%80%8Bed&v=jvKRjETbIRg
Today, Robert Igbinedion, a Lagos based lawyer, has taken Oyedepo's ass to court for infringing on the rights of a female congregant. The lawyer is praying the court to cause Oyedepo to pay the girl N2bn as 'general and exemplary damages' and also to publish an open apology to the girl in many Nigerian newspapers and other foreign media.
It baffles logic that in Oedepo's church and schools, money changers like Ibori, Lucky Igbinedion, Bode George, Erastus Akingbola, Cecilia Ibru, etc. recieve warm embraces, open adulation, special prayers with annointing, etc. He, of course, set up his numerous schools for their children!
The difference between the hapless girl that Oyedepo slapped and the likes of Ibori and Cecilia Ibru is simple: they pay fat tithes, bring assorted goods, and build large auditoriums for the pastor and church.
What can a poor girl give Oyedepo, a multi-billionnaire!
I trust the Nigerian Judiciary; Oyedepo will return with no verdict of guilt in the same way an Asaba Court returned Ibori as a saint only for a UK Court to jail him for 13years after a self-confession.
Oyedepo may claim to be a man of God and his worshippers may see him as one; certainly he side-stepped our laws, the Nigerian laws, by slapping that girl. The fact that the girl walked into his church and also came to the front on her own volition has never mauled her rights. Oyedepo is a shame to Christianity and it beats my imagination that CAN and PFN can fold their hands, keep their mouths shut and remain 'characteristically' silent on the matter.
By the way, what right has a pastor to declare a congregant candidate of/for hell or heaven? On whose authority? Did we not read of one of the condemned robbers who got saved as Jesus was dying on the cross?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jvKRjETbIRg
Jesus Christ chased away moneychangers and bussinessmen from the temple, whipping and flogging them as they fled. With bosterious wind blowing away their flowing gowns, he upturned their trays and tables and fling their wares! That is Jesus, the true Pastor!
Mr. David Oyedepo, the General Overseer and Founder of Winners' Chapel, Covenant University and Landmark University among many other institutions in Nigeria, is undoubtedly a cult-hero to many Nigerian pentecostal (perhaps pente-rascal) Christians. Mr. Oyedepo owns the largest Church Auditorium in the world. Besides these, he has no other claim to fame!
In Nigeria, this credential is more than that of Professor Toyin Falola, an Ibadan-born, OAU Ile-Ife-trained History professor who has written and edited more than 200 African History books. It is more than that of Prof Wole Soyinka, the nobel laurate! It is more than those of Achebe and Ayi Kwei Ama, the literature greats!!
However, prior to now, Mr. Oyedepo stopped students of his university from graduating for being HIV positive and for not being virgins. Only pressure from the civil society pressured NUC to stop him!
Among many other attrocities, many who work in his university have claimed that he, like Jesus, also washed heads and feet of lecturers and staff of the university (and taking the water away). Those who allow him to wash their feet and head are paid a 'worship fee' while those who will not are not paid.
As these videos show, Mr. Oyedepo has been slapping and tramping on people's rights for very long and he often boasts of this special service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedd%E2%80%8Bed&v=jvKRjETbIRg
Today, Robert Igbinedion, a Lagos based lawyer, has taken Oyedepo's ass to court for infringing on the rights of a female congregant. The lawyer is praying the court to cause Oyedepo to pay the girl N2bn as 'general and exemplary damages' and also to publish an open apology to the girl in many Nigerian newspapers and other foreign media.
It baffles logic that in Oedepo's church and schools, money changers like Ibori, Lucky Igbinedion, Bode George, Erastus Akingbola, Cecilia Ibru, etc. recieve warm embraces, open adulation, special prayers with annointing, etc. He, of course, set up his numerous schools for their children!
The difference between the hapless girl that Oyedepo slapped and the likes of Ibori and Cecilia Ibru is simple: they pay fat tithes, bring assorted goods, and build large auditoriums for the pastor and church.
What can a poor girl give Oyedepo, a multi-billionnaire!
I trust the Nigerian Judiciary; Oyedepo will return with no verdict of guilt in the same way an Asaba Court returned Ibori as a saint only for a UK Court to jail him for 13years after a self-confession.
Oyedepo may claim to be a man of God and his worshippers may see him as one; certainly he side-stepped our laws, the Nigerian laws, by slapping that girl. The fact that the girl walked into his church and also came to the front on her own volition has never mauled her rights. Oyedepo is a shame to Christianity and it beats my imagination that CAN and PFN can fold their hands, keep their mouths shut and remain 'characteristically' silent on the matter.
By the way, what right has a pastor to declare a congregant candidate of/for hell or heaven? On whose authority? Did we not read of one of the condemned robbers who got saved as Jesus was dying on the cross?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jvKRjETbIRg
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