Senior
Pastor of the Household of God Church, Chris Okotie, famous for his
controversial outbursts, may have gotten himself in trouble over his
recent comments about the President, Christian Association of Nigeria
(CAN), Ayo Oritsejafor.
Okotie had claimed that Oritsejafor gave former president, Goodluck Jonathan, a false prophecy, which led him to contest and lose the last presidential election.
The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), in defence of
Oritsejafor, released a statement signed by its chairman, Solomon
Asemota.
The forum said Okotie’s alleged slander would be addressed through
the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), where he will be required
to defend his allegation.
“Since Rev. Okotie has not issued a retraction of the news report, it
would be assumed that he made the statements credited to him.
“The Reverend gentleman shall be required, through the PFN bloc, to
kindly inform the Nigerian Church “where and when” the President of CAN
made the “false prophecy” he alluded to and why he believed such
unedifying information should form part of the gospel from his pulpit.
“In view of the many challenges facing the Nigerian church, it has
become necessary to appeal to Christians, particularly, the ministers of
the gospel, to be circumspect about utterances concerning other
Christians, in particular, the person and the office of the President of
Christian Association of Nigeria.
“It would be necessary to remind Christians that CAN is the official
institution representing Christian interests in Nigeria and any attempt
by any Christian to ridicule or weaken CAN, is a disservice to the Lord
and to His Church.
“The Bible makes it clear that there would necessarily be
disagreements among us and God in His wisdom has outlined steps for
Christians to manage and resolve conflicts. (Matt. 18: 15 – 17).
Christians should desist from slanders and false accusations. “We did
not so learn from Christ”. (Eph. 4: 20)
“Nigerian Christians should be reminded that the Nigerian Church has a
lot of enemies bent on “eradicating” the Church in all of its
“ramifications”. It is no longer a secret that these enemies use
“operatives”, within and outside the Church to spread false reports,
accusations and divisive statements to divide the church and weaken
Christianity.
“Much of the contention in the Church has been traced to the
nefarious activities of these “operatives”, many of whom pretend to be
Christians. (2 Cor. 11: 13 – 15) Satan knows full well that a house that
is divided cannot stand,” the statement said.