Bring Apostle Suleman to book
Apostle Johnson Suleman of the Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, a video of whose preaching urging his followers to kill herdsmen who approach his church went viral on the social media, should be brought to book by the security agencies for hate speech and criminal incitement. In the video, made in Auchi, Edo State during a […]
Apostle Johnson Suleman of the Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, a video of whose preaching urging his followers to kill herdsmen who approach his church went viral on the social media, should be brought to book by the security agencies for hate speech and criminal incitement. In the video, made in Auchi, Edo State during a Sunday sermon two weeks ago, Suleman claimed that he got a call from someone who told him that Fulani herdsmen had been sent to assassinate him. If indeed he got such a report, his duty as a responsible citizen was to report the matter to relevant security agencies whose responsibility it is to protect him and members of his church.
Instead, this so-called man of God instructed members of his congregation to go after and kill any herdsman that they see near the premises of his church. The cleric made the controversial speech in the presence of hundreds of his church members. While some cheered him, other church members squirmed with discomfort. Department of State Services (DSSS) agents tried days later to arrest Suleman in Ado Ekiti where he had gone for a two-day crusade. However, the eccentric Governor of Ekiti State Ayodele Fayose blocked the attempt to arrest the cleric at a hotel in Adebayo area of the state capital. Fayose said he went to take Apostle Suleman away from the hotel “in order to forestall the crisis that the arrest could trigger.” He accused APC members of “hatred for men of God.”
Pastor Suleman later said his preaching at Auchi centred on “the need for Christians to always defend themselves anytime the church was invaded by gunmen” and that it was not a comment meant to instigate Christians against Muslims. “I said Christians must not go after them but if they come after us, then defend yourself. This is what they twisted to mean that Muslims must be killed. I am hearing different versions of the story.” His crude attempt to rewrite his hate speech must fall flat because the video of his incendiary preaching went viral on the internet and millions of people saw it. Nor was this the first time that this demagoguish priest made incendiary remarks from the pulpit. Sometime last year, he prophesised that Kaduna State governor Malam Nasir El-Rufa’i would die in office.
In a country like Nigeria where religion is a sensitive and strong mechanism employed by mischief-makers to foment trouble, it would be unreasonable for men of God as preachers of peaceful co-existence to be careless in their speeches. One inflammatory sentence or even a word could destroy an entire community or nation. Given the present tensions in parts of the country including southern Kaduna, it is only appropriate that clerics and everyone else must exercise restraint in their utterances. It is true that there is a lot of frustration at the events in southern Kaduna State and the losses of lives and property that has gone on for many months now.
All hands are now on deck in the search for a solution and it is the duty of every patriotic citizen to contribute whatever he can to this search for a durable solution. The fact is that violent inter-communal disputes have been the lot of southern Kaduna State for many decades now. The search for a solution should not be further complicated by demagoguish rants such as Apostle Suleman’s. Anyone of whatever religious or political persuasion that breaches the law of incitement should be brought to book immediately. No one must hide behind clerical, academic, political, journalistic or any other podium to perpetrate hatred and criminality without paying the price.