FORTY hours after the
Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence passed on the General Overseer of the
Christian Praying Assembly, CPA, Rev. Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, a.k.a. Rev. King,
the remaining members of his depleted church still revered the bearded,
athletic weird cleric as they shrugged off t heir worries to organise a special
church service to mark his birthday.
Although his age was kept secret by the church
leadership and members, the birthday though was on February 26, a date that
coincided with the apex court’s judgment, was postponed till yesterday when the
members thronged the church to celebrate a man who still commands unmatched
cult loyalty and follower-ship among his converts, such that they still
consider their lives of no consequence as far as ‘His Holiness, Rev. King’ is
concerned.
Church declines comments on Supreme Court
judgment: The church declined comments on the Supreme Court judgment on the
founder of the church. Pressed by Vanguard for official comments, the
resident pastor dressed in ash-coloured suit with a striped tie to match,
Pastor Ifeanyichukwu Chiokwe said the church was yet to agree its reaction to
the judgment.
Special birthday service
The resident pastor only
volunteered; “You can report whatever you have seen today objectively. At least
you have witnessed the ‘Special birthday service for His Holiness’ and you can
see how we have conducted ourselves. As a church we have no comment on what
you talked about.” The special church service which commenced at about
7.00 a.m. and ended five hours later, was attended by about 400 members who
arrived the church at different times.
Sources said that the members were those who
hold tenaciously to the doctrine of their General Overseer despite his
incarceration 10 years ago and believe that the embattled founder would live
forever.
A member who do not want
his name in print, said: “I had other engagements today. But immediately I was
reminded that there will be a special church service for the G.O, to mark his
birthday, I rushed down. Infact, I am happy that I was able to attend the
service. Our G.O lives on.” Some of the members took to the social media to
congratulate the general overseer
King’s pulpit,
special seat vacant
Apparently as part of the
high esteem members hold Rev. King, a native of Achina in Anambra State and
Psychology graduate of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka-he is highly revered
and dignified by members of CPA-nobody mounted the upraised altar which carried
a kingly black chair to one side and a covered glass pulpit. In anticipation of
his eventual return, his seat and altar were covered with a purple cloth and
other royal apparels.
The resident pastor,
Pastor Ifeanyichukwu Chiokwe, who presided over the special service used a
different pulpit from where he preached the only sermon of the day, quoting
several Bible passages include Luke 24 and Isaiah 53:1, urging members to hold
tenaciously to their faith and do not believe whatever was being disseminated
by the mass media.
The Sermon:
Rev. Chiokwe noted that
Rev. King would soon return to the church to continue his evangelical mission,
pointing out: “When you visit the news stand today, what you will see on the
front pages are stories about our G.O., Dr. Rev King. Also, the social media is
awash with stories about His Holiness (Dr. Rev King), but the message I have
for you is that, do not believe whatever you have heard or read.
“This is a trying time and
I expect you to stand firm. Our enemies are trying to use the agencies of
government to scatter the Church. But I expect you to stand firm and put your
faith in God. I do not expect you to believe whatever message the world is
passing across to you. But believe in the Lord, his scriptures and abide by his
commandments,” he added.
Chiokwe who presided over
the Sunday worship and birthday service at the Ugo Nnabuife Street, Off Bishop
Ojo Avenue, Ajao Estate, Lagos, urged members to pray for the G.O., and remain
steadfast and focused, saying that the birthday service of their spiritual
father was worth celebrating. Spiritual father He further asked the
elated members to appreciate God for the life of their founder and also sing
series of birthday songs for almost 20 minutes. Sources said that the
excitement on the faces of the worshippers would make a first time visitor to
the church find it difficult to believe that the bearded church founder with
charming smile had mesmerised members describing himself as the Jesus Christ of
our time is currently on death row. Some members were dressed in two different
branded attires with the pictures of Rev. King boldly imprinted on them with
the inscription, ‘The man of the moment; His Holiness, the Most Hon. Dr. Rev
King-The man of the moment,” and others in tee-shirts reading “Stop fighting
God and His people.” Rev. King’s alleged message to worshippers: After the only
sermon of the day, Pastor Chiokwe proceeded to read Rev. King’s messages of
encouragement, prayers amongst others to his faithful followers. The founder’s
message read thus:
1.Today is worth
celebrating.
2.Offer prayer for our G.O. Thank God for His
Holiness, Dr. Rev King (3 minutes).
3.Everyone that prayed and
thanked God for our G.O. will receive a special Hosanna miracle; miracles that
are highly different from what he or she has been receiving before.
4. Pray against evils that
have fashioned themselves against your lives, shops, joy, dreams (20 minutes).
You shall never be put to
shame
The moment the cake of the birthday
celebration was cut by me, shackles, chain and all powers of the enemies will
cut to pieces.
After the service go home and rejoice.
There is someone that ate
poison but that poison has disappeared immediately you eat of the refreshment
here today, you will have peace.
I bless all the children in CPA, they shall be
healed, protected, have long life and grow up to become great men and women of
God.
I bless all those who gave
us support in any way, God shall give them pools of living water.
Everything that would be
consumed here today, has already been blessed, they have become miracle
materials.
Pray right now for every
other good needs of yours.
He shall answer your
prayers.
Let us sing very good
birthday song for our Daddy G.O. for 20 minutes. “Happy birthday to you His
Holiness”
Open your mouth and sing
your own good song to God because of today (30 minutes).
Offerings
I will stop here for now
till next time time, our Daddy G.O, will live forever.
Testimonies
18 Prayer of dismissal
Immediately after the service which ended at
noon, members were directed to the second wing of the auditorium for
refreshments and they had quite a lot to eat and drink while the choir supplied
light music. Neighbouring cleric com-ments
Meanwhile another Ajao
Estate cleric and a medical practitioner, Dr. Omadeli Boyo, General Overseer of
the Redeeming Love Chapel yesterday described the Supreme Court verdict as long
in coming, stressing that it was common knowledge that the apex court would
confirm the death sentence.
“It took a long time in coming. It was obvious
it was going to come. So it was long expected and the salient lessons to draw
from the verdict, are that the chicken had come home to roost. At the end of
the day, each man will give an account of his stewardship; either here on earth
or by and by, in heaven-the judgment of God is bigger than the judgment of
man,” the medical director of Pinecrest Specialist Hospitals, averred.
Account of his
stewardship
Continuing, Dr. Boyo, a
specialist in Organisational Culture, Public Health, and Sociology of Mental Health
and Illness told our reporter that the judgment is only a matter of time to
come “and this one has come after a tortuous journey through the Lagos High
Court and eventually the Supreme Court which gave its verdict yesterday. Right
from the High Court to the appellate court there was no mistake about it that
Rev. King was wrong.”
According to him, there
are lots of lessons ministers should learn from this; that the laws of the land
may prevail and what he did was not only against the laws of the land but also
against God, stressing that “he will still face the judgment of God over the
allegations against him. This is only a preliminary judgment. There will still
be a bigger judgment of God. That is the one he should also fear and repent for
obvious reasons.
“The lessons to men of God is that this was the
case of burns, deaths and other such like, there are other sins—though no sin
is greater than the other—like falsehood, misinformation and financial and
misappropriation of funds in the Body of Christ, lies…the world will have to
judge the church in the area of accountability,” he noted.