The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian National Summit Group (NNSG), Tony Uranta, has called for the arrest of the Presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, aka Winner’s Chapel, David Oyedepo for violating the government’s ban on large gatherings of people to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement Tuesday, Uranta said, “Bishop Oyedepo is one of my more respected Nigerian Christian leaders. But his excuse for disobeying the commonsensical Federal Government ban on large gatherings gave the Church in Nigeria a very bad image and the government should arrest him to let the World know that we are taking the coronavirus threat seriously, and prove to all Nigerians that nobody is above the law, especially in this dire season of the global pandemic.”
Uranta added that Oyedepo’s foolhardy decision has irredeemably belittled him (Oyedepo) in the eyes of the public; insisting that the government will be shirking its primary responsibility of keeping the Nigerian people safe and secure if the bishop is allowed to get away with the act.
He also contended that Oyedepo’s singular act of civic callousness must have put, at least, thousands of gullible Nigerians that heeded his call to worship in danger, not to even begin to imagine the other tens of thousands of other Nigerians that these ones could have made secondary contacts and spreading the infectious disease!
“If the government lets this slide, many of us will be irresistibly opposed to it, and this could lead to the Buhari Administration’s demise faster than a lot of other things, should it eventually turn out that Nigerians fall sick or die from the quirky action of one man and the perception of impotence in our country’s security agencies where the elite is concerned,” Uranta said.
