Cleric tasks el- Rufai on anti-public preaching Bill

As controversy continue to trail the current bill aimed at prohibiting public preaching before the Kaduna State House of Assembly, the General Overseer of the Mountain of Liberation and Miracle Ministry (a.k.a Liberation City), Pastor Dr. Chris Okafor, has called on the Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai to withdraw the controversial bill in the interest of the country.

Pastor Okafor made the call while speaking with journalists at the church’s headquarters in Lagos recently.

The Cleric said the bill which seeks to prohibit public preaching after 8pm daily, while also seeking to mandate preachers to obtain license before they could preach, is a ploy to gag the Christian’s that are known for night vigil and crusades.

He added that the proposed law, apart from offending the provision of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), is also against the spirit of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, which guarantee the freedom of worship among other rights.

Okafor, vowed that if the Kaduna State government goes ahead with the bill, which he said might cause religious crisis in the country and set the people against each other, he would have no option than to seek redress in the law court to quash what he said is ‘’an obnoxious law aimed at gagging Christians.’’

The cleric called on other Christian leaders in the country to rise up and lend their voice against the proposed law now, adding that once it succeeds in Kaduna, it would be replicated in other parts of the country.

‘’Today it is Christians in Kaduna, but tomorrow it may be Christians elsewhere.’’

‘’If we fail to act today, it may be too late to cry in future. Kaduna is a text case, it will definitely spread to other parts of the country.

‘’On my part, apart from crying out against the evil of the proposed bill in my preaching, I have made up my mind that if the state government refused to withdraw it, we shall challenge the legality or otherwise in the law court. I am already preparing my lawyers for this,’’ Okafor said.