Pandemonium broke out on Tuesday, October 31st, as men of the Zambian police and officials of the Zambian Immigration service, stormed the home of the pastor of Omega Fire Ministries in Lusaka, Austine Obosele, a Nigerian, to deport him back to Nigeria.
Founder of
Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman has warned the Zambian
government after the forceful deportation of one of his pastors that work in
their country.
They accused him of staying
in their country despite the expiration of his employment permit.
Obosele who has reportedly
been deported back to Nigeria, accused some of the Zambian government officials
of attacking him because he refused to give them a bribe.
Obosele told Zambian press
that he had been trying to renew his immigration documentation but that a
senior official from the Ministry of Religious National Guidance had vowed to
see to it that he was deported after he refused to give him K30, 000 as bribe.
Obosele alleged that some
expelled members of the church had also teamed up with the government officials
so that they could take over the church, money in the church account and
properties after his deportation.
He said that some suspended
members of the church had reported falsehoods about him to the Ministry of
Religious Affairs and National Guidance, which they investigated but did not
find any fault.
“I got a call
from one man from Religious Affairs. This man can call thirty times in one
minute, I don’t know how much they gave him. I went to the office to see him at
his office, there he accused me of a lot and lots of things. From there he told
me that I needed to cooperate with him because my deportation order is already
on his table. He said if I don’t cooperate he would have me deported and I
should give him K30, 000, to which I questioned whether it was his ministry
that deported people,” he said
Pastor Obosele said that
when his documents were up for renewal, he submitted to the Immigration but
that he had found it difficult as was promised to get his papers cleared.
Reacting to the attack on
Obosele, the founder of the church, Apostle Suleiman in a statement released
yesterday, accused the Zambian government of always allowing foreigners to
start big investments in the country, grow the investment and later deport them
so that Zambians can take over the investments.
He added that Nigerians
were the biggest investors in Zambia. He warned that when small little known
countries like Zambia continue doing such to foreign investors, no investment
will come into the country.
According to him, his
church in Zambia has grown so much that it is attracting attention and now the
state wants to fight it.
“If you fight
my pastor, you are fighting me. And if you fight me, wait for the results,
there will be problems. There will be reactions. Its not the best thing to do.
When you do this, you send signals around the world. I am saying this because I
know they are watching me. There are people you touch and things will just
spoil.” he said
The pregnant
wife of the pastor and one of his senior church members have been detained for
obstructing the arrest and deportation of the pastor.
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