The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has called for the arrest of Bishop David Oyedepo.
Oyedepo is the General Overseer of the Living Faith Church Worldwide.
A
statement Wednesday evening by Yerima Shettima, AYCF National
President, said the cleric was still walking the streets of Nigeria
freely despite flouting the federal and state governments’ ban on large
gatherings over the coronavirus outbreak.
He noted that Oyedepo
mobilized a huge crowd of people at Canaan in Ibadan for so-called
religious activities, in flagrant disobedience of the directives,
following the spread of Covid-19 virus pandemic.
The group
declared that there was no justification for bringing a large crowd of
people together in the name of worship at a time the greatest number of
deaths have been recorded because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The youths stated that it was callous violation of the Nigerian government’s safety instructions at this critical moment.
“Pastor
Oyedepo has openly shown not only his disdain for the rule of law but
also the value of human life. He has chosen to endanger the lives of
many of his innocent followers by deliberately refusing to be guided in
face ofthis global pandemic
“We therefore challenge Pastor
Oyedepo to tell us if he did not take advantage of his closeness to Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo in this flagrant disobedience to Nigerian laws
and the United Nation’s Charter on the safety of human lives.
“He
owes this nation full explanation for being the only Nigerian to
indulge in creating a gathering of the Ibadan Canaan magnitude, when the
restriction of movement is respected all over world because of the
current pandemic.
“We therefore share the view of all prominent
Nigerians that this Pastor should be promptly arrested for endangering
the lives of innocent Nigerians, recklessly using religion as a cover.
“We
hope the Nigerian security agencies will swing into action so that the
prompt arrest of this callous clergyman would serve as a deterrent to
others”, it read.
AYCF insisted that no Nigerian regardless of
his/her social standing should get away with endangering anyone’s life,
using religion as a smokescreen for achieving dangerous goals.