Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners Chapel) assaulted Ogun State
tax officialsfor demanding the payment of six years outstanding taxes,
some of the church's staff, on Saturday, brutalized the news crew of
the state owned television station, OGTV.
The crew, comprising a reporter, Peter Falomo, and cameraman, Lekan
Egunjobi, had gone to the church's premises to cover the serving of
building inspection notices on the church by officials of the Ministry
Of Urban and Physical Planning when they were attacked.
The journalists were severely beaten. Their camera was damaged and
subsequently seized before it was released after the recording on it
had been wiped off.
Aside from the television crew, two officials of the Ministry were
also injured by the irate church members who prevented the team from
entering the premises.
Ironically, the assault meted out to the crew was said to have been
witnessed by the Head Pastor of the church, Timothy Oyedepo, who was
equally visibly angry by the officials' attempt to carry out their
statutory duties on his church premises.
Mr. Oyedepo, at some point, according to sources, uttered unprintable
words while querying the effrontery of the state officials to attempt
to regulate the building of structures for commercial purposes on the
church premises.
However, it was reliably gathered that, earlier, before the
assignment, officials of the Ministry of Urban and Physical Planning,
accompanied by policemen had, following the previous day's similar
assault of their counterparts in the OGIRS, made a report of their
planned visit to the Winners Chapel premises at the Divisional Police
Station, Onipanu, Ota.
The injured journalists and other wounded officials were treated at
the General Hospital, Ota, and subsequently discharged. The incident
has also been reported to the police.
The General Manager of Ogun State Urban and Physical Planning Board,
Stephen Adewolu, who was part of the team that was molested in Ota,
while reacting, expressed shock at the lawlessness displayed by the
Winners Chapel members and their leaders.
"No organisation can carry on as if it is above the law. We have
information that the people in that church are just building
structures indiscriminately without building approval, without
necessary environmental impact assessment reports and they are
violating planning laws and regulations. We only went there to serve
statutory notices on the on-going building development and they are
behaving as if the premises of the church is not covered by the laws
of the state in which it is located," he said.
"The incident led to the hospitalisation of one of the officials while
others sustained minor injuries. The state government has directed its
Ministry of Justice to study the facts on the two incidents with a
view to taking appropriate legal measures.
"Also, officials of the Winners Chapel had shunned meetings of the
Stakeholders Forum established by the state government for
representatives of organisations located in the state to deliberate
with the government on issues of common interest."
When contacted, Ogun State Commissioner for Information and Strategy,
Yusuph Olaniyonu, confirmed the attack, adding that a report had been
made to police.
"The government reiterates its commitment to its philosophy of one law
for everyone in the state and that any harassment or intimidation of
its officials and agents in the course of discharging their statutory
duties will be seriously viewed," he stated.
Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of the church have been
unsuccessful; as no official would comment. The church is also yet to
react to the earlier attack by the school, located within the church
premises, on the tax officials.
No comments:
Post a Comment