Apostle Johnson Suleiman, the Senior Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries<\/p>\n
(OFM), with headquaters in Auchi, Edo State and President of Celebration
\nTV has rained curses on Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, over his
\ndirective that pastors and churches must be licenced to preach.<\/p>\n
In a video that is being circulated on social media (click to watch video
\nhere), he warned the governor: \u201cRevoke your law or die!\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, Governor El-Rufai sent a bill to the State House of Assembly to
\nregulate religious preaching across the state. The bill titled: \u201cA bill
\nfor a law to substitute the Kaduna State religious preaching law, 1984\u201d is
\nalso aimed at banning the usage of loudspeaker for religious purposes
\n\u201cother than inside a Mosques or Church and the surrounding areas outside
\nthe stipulated prayer times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Government wanted the Assembly to enact the law that will stop the playing
\nor circulating of \u201call cassettes, CDs, flash drives or any other
\ncommunication gadgets containing religious recordings from accredited
\npreachers other than inside one\u2019s house, porch, Church, Mosques and other
\ndesignated place of worship.\u201d
\nThe bill seeks to ban sales or playing of any cassette containing
\n\u201creligious recordings in which abusive language is used against any person
\nor religious organisation or religious leaders (past or present).\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill, if pasted into law, will prohibit sales of religious books,
\nusage of abusive and derogatory terms in describing any religion.<\/p>\n
The bill propose that any person found guilty of preaching without a valid
\nlicence and other offences under the law \u201cshall be liable to two years in
\nprison or pay a fine of N200, 000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Pastor Suleiman did not oppose sanitising the state in many
\nareas, he was angry about the issue of \u201cpreaching by licence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suleiman said further that there were men of God before El-Rufai was
\ngovernor and there will be men of God after he leaves. \u201cWhy not tell
\nherbalists to obtain licence before they practise their herbalism? Why not
\ntell witches that they need licence to fly?\u201d, the pastor asked
\nrhetorically.<\/p>\n
He added that asking a pastor to obtain licence is against the
\nConstitution of Nigeria, \u201cWhen you say licence, you are acting against
\nfreedom of worship\u201d. He asked the governor to stay off his plan, \u201cunless
\nyou want your cabinet to reduce\u2026people may just sleep without waking up\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Apostle Johnson Suleiman, the Senior Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries (OFM), with headquaters in Auchi, Edo State and President of Celebration TV has rained curses on Governor Nasir El-Rufai of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n