A popular pentecostal church, Promise Land Prophetic Ministries,
Akure, the Ondo State capital was invaded by men of the Nigeria Police
over claims of alleged involvement of the General Overseer of the
church, Pastor Gbenga Akinbiyi in diabolical practice.
It was gathered that the policemen from the Force headquarters in
Abuja stormed the church located at Shasha in Akure North Local
Government Area and dug the altar of the church.
According to a source in the church, the action of the policemen was
not unconnected with an ongoing investigation over fetish allegation
against the founder and pastor of the church.
The source on Tuesday said some former members of the church wrote a
petition against the founder that he planted some fetish objects on
the altar of the church in order to draw more congregants.
While narrating how things went awry between the embattled pastor and
some foundation members of the church, the source stated that the
crisis started after he (pastor) broke away from the Christ Apostolic
Church (CAC) and changed the name of the church, some years ago.
“After he changed the name of the church, some founding and prominent
members of the church started observing that he was derailing from the
real Christian doctrine and spirituality.
“They also observed that the pastor was being fetish, that he planted
some fetish materials on the altar of the church. So many of them left
the church.
“After leaving the church, they wrote a petition to the police to
investigate the pastor. That must have been what led policemen to dig
the altar. ”
Confirming the development, the state Police Public Relations Officer,
Femi Joseph, stated that the policemen went to the church as part of
the ongoing investigation into some allegations against the pastor.
“There are some allegations against the pastor of the church, but we
can’t disclose the allegation now until after our investigation. So
what our men did in the church was part of the ongoing investigation.
Pastor Akinbiyi refuted the claim that he planted some fetish things
on his church altar.
He, however, confirmed that policemen were in his church and dug the
altar but found nothing planted on the altar after digging it.
“I did not plant anything on the altar, it was the handiwork of some
of my former members whom I have helped.
“I was the one that petitioned the Inspector General of Police,
initially, they didn’t want to dig the altar. I was the one that
insisted that the altar must be dug. Everyone was there with the
policemen on that day and they did not find anything planted on the
altar.
