The Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) Worldwide has responded to the presiding pastor of the Salvation Ministries, Port Harcourt, David Ibiyeomie, over his recent outburst.
Recall that Freelanews reports how Ibiyeomie has claimed during one his broadcast that he hates white garment churches because they are diabolical.
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In a statement made available to our correspondent and signed by the CCC’s head of Media and Publicity, Dr. Kayode Ajala, the church accused the controversial pastor of defamation and cyberbullying.
Ibiyeomie once jailed a blogger, Kemi Oluloyo, for cybercrime. Olunloyo alleged that the pastor had an affair with a popular Nollywood actress, Iyabo Ojo.
Sometimes in last year, the controversial pastor also threatened to arrest media practitioners if insulted.
“It is indeed very sad and unfortunate that a so called Man of God and Minister of the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, would stand on a pulpit and face his congregation and denigrate and deride the entire image of another denomination in the same body of Christ, like Pastor David Ibiyeomie, the presiding Pastor of the Salvation Ministries, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, did in a recent video posted in the cyberspace.
“It is even worse to think that he would stand on a pulpit and say that he “HATES” other Christians of any other denomination. The Bible preaches against such and as the Celestial Church of Christ, we will not sink to the same level in responding. We will respond with love.
“The first thing is that as a church of the living God and in our priesthood as well as prophetic ministry, there is no ordained prophet and prophetess of the Celestial Church of Christ who would speak incantations over anybody’s name, let alone for whatever reason put someone’s name in a bottle filled with “Kai Kai” (Illicit gin), as Ibiyeomie has said,” Dr. Ajala stated.
According to the media head, Ibiyeomie was believed to have made such utterance out of ignorance or little knowledge of what the church stands for, as nothing in the CCC’s liturgy allows for such practices of putting people’s name in gin as the pastor claimed.
“It is very clear that Pastor David Ibiyeomie does not know the Celestial Church of Christ. We would therefore give the benefit of doubt that he probably saw somebody like that in a white apparel and mistook such a person as belonging to the Celestial Church of Christ. There is nothing in the liturgy of our great church that commands or instructs or permits anyone to bring such a fetish item as a bottle filled with alcoholic drink, and with a name in it, into the presence of the Lord pretending to be praying to the same God.
David Ibiyeomie
“We believe that once Ibiyeomie realises his error, he would be decent enough to face his congregation again, retract his derogatory statements against the Celestial Church of Christ and make his retraction go viral as this particular one that is trending has gone gone viral, and APOLOGISE to the Celestial Church of Christ. APOLOGISE to the general body of Christ and take his words back. If he does that, we would treat it as a mistake, knowing that no man is above making mistakes. But if he doesn’t, then he would have decided for the public how he is to be categorised in the body of Christ.
“There is obviously an error of judgment in Ibiyeomie’s “Kai Kai” outburst because it is not logical to move from citing a singular example of anything and then proceed illogically to conclude that what one unit is guilty of, if so, is representative of an entire church. What Pastor David Ibiyeomie has done publicly with his video in the cyberspace is nothing short of cyber bullying which is a crime, but we would refrain from treating it as such for now,” he said.
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In recent times, the CCC has been a victim of malicious media attacks by tiktokers and online broadcasters. One that stood out was that of a lady who falsely accused a CCC parish of ritualism leading to arson and attempted murder of the church’s shepherd.
Coincidentally, the lady, Angela Ndah, is a member of Ibiyeomie’s church.
“The same crime of cyber bullying was perpetrated against the Celestial Church of Christ by a member of Ibiyeomie’s Salvation Ministries, one Angela Ndah, just a few weeks back, when she incited a mob to burn down a parish of the Celestial Church of Christ (The C.C.C. Overcomers Parish, Ajah, Lagos). Like one deliriously infected with the “Kai Kai” anointing of a misguided mentor, Angela Ndah had tagged the Celestial Church of Christ with all sorts of derogatory names and peddled undiluted falsehood in a video which she put in the cyberspace. A few days later, she came out of her delirium and made another video apologising to the Celestial Church of Christ for making such false and damaging claims against the church. That matter is presently with the Police and Angela Ndah is on the run!
“We encourage Pastor David Ibiyeomie and others like him who cannot control their emotions and their misjudgments to bridle their tongues like the Bible says. If this sort of thing is repeated, we would have no choice, as a church, than to hand him over, in his folly, to the law enforcement authorities for the crime of cyber bullying,” Dr. Ajala submitted.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
