The Christian Association of Nigeria in Ogun State has risen in defence of a pastor, who recently demolished a shrine in Ketu community in Ayetoro, Yewa North Local Government Area of the state.
CAN said that the pastor, Wale Fagbire of the Christ Apostolic Church, Ona-Iye, was instructed by God to carry out such an iconoclastic mission because the shrine had hindered his progress and that of his family members.
Fagbire reportedly became unconscious while pulling down the idols in the shrine and had to be rescued by traditional worshippers, who were said to have made some sacrifices before the gods let go of the pastor.
Speaking on the phone with The Point in Abeokuta, the state chairman of CAN, Bishop Tunde Akin-Akinsanya, disclosed that the pastor demolished the family shrine because it had been identified as the major cause of the setback in his life.
According to Akin-Akinsanya, “It is the shrine in their own family, he is the son of the late Kabiyesi of the town, and according to him, in the course of his prayers, God said, well, for him to make progress in life, that particular thing had to be demolished because those things had already affected his life, and God asked him to go.”
The Ogun CAN chairman, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Revd. Tolulope Taiwo, denied insinuation that the pastor became dumb, stressing that he was instructed by God not to leave the shrine until the arrival of its worshippers.
According to him, “There was nothing like that, he did not become deaf or dumb, nothing happened to him, he is hale and hearty,” adding that the pastor did not make any sacrifice to appease the gods over the destruction of the shrine.
“According to God’s instruction, he wanted to leave, but God had already instructed him not leave the place until they come and that he should create a scene. He did that and the people came in and met him there and they beat him with charms”.
Akin-Akinsanya, who also doubles as the chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, maintained that the Christian body would not penalise Fagbire for his action.
“The stand of CAN is that since it is God’s instruction, we cannot penalise him for doing that and he wasn’t affected by anything invoked on him,” he added.
