Sacked Lagos Presiding Chaplain: CAN Takes Over Case

The Christian Association of Nigeria has taken over the case of the sacked Presiding Chaplain of the Chapel of Christ the Light, Venerable Femi Taiwo.

It was gathered that executive members of CAN, The African Church, the CCTL Governing Council, held a meeting on the Lagos Island over the incident yesterday (Monday).

Although participants at the meeting kept silent on how the event played out, it was gathered that the Christian leaders resolved to hand over the case to CAN at the state level.

The Punch had reported that Bolanle, the wife of the state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, had attended an anointing service at the chapel on May 14, 2017.

She was reported to have become angry that she was not called first to be anointed and stormed out despite entreaties from the women leaders in the church.

On the following day, Taiwo got the sack, with an instruction to vacate his official quarters within 24 hours.

The cleric was said to have been offered accommodation by some of his church members, who condemned the action of the wife of the governor.

Due to the backlash that trailed the incident, the state government changed the venue of its Lagos at 50 thanksgiving service from the chapel to the banquet hall of the state house, Ikeja.

It was reported that some of the chapel members did not show up for the Sunday service, while a two hour meeting was later held by the chapel’s leadership with registered members of the church.

A source at the Monday meeting said, “It was a meeting of the leadership of CAN. It was a peace meeting. Nobody is interested in creating unnecessary tension in the polity, especially at this time when Lagos is celebrating its 5oth anniversary.

“We have decided to hand over the case to CAN to handle. The church is waiting for CAN to mediate and do the appropriate thing. We will not speculate. We have decided to trust them.”

This is just as the General Overseer of the Temple Rebuilder Ministry, aka Soul Winners Bible Church, Pastor Barnabas Otoibhi, said ministers ought to be treated with decorum.

Otoibhi, who spoke with Punch on phone, condemned Taiwo’s sacking, calling for caution.

He said, “From the report, the chapel is owned by the government and they have their rules and regulations. Based on that, it is important for the minister to stick to the rules.

“However, the minister of God should have a level of reverence accorded to him. To just sack a pastor within a few hours of ministration is very ridiculous. It is not proper for a pastor to be sacked by anybody. If there is a rule that he violated, he should have been given a chance to defend himself. But from your report, the man was not issued a query over the incident. He was just sacked.

“If it is true that this was also about the anointing oil, it is important to state that in the house of God, there is no preferential treatment. Everybody in the house of God is equal before God. It is wrong for anybody, be it governor, minister, or a governor’s wife to sack a servant of God. The servant of God is not a servant of men. Nobody has the power to sack a man of God.”