Pastor Tunde Bakare
THE Senior Pastor of The Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare has donated three church buildings to the Lagos and Ogun state governments as isolation centres.
In a message on Sunday, Pastor Bakare urged other religious leaders to follow suit rather than shunning responsibilities by deploying baseless criticisms adding that the pandemic requires collective efforts to combat particularly from religious leaders that preach love and charity.
The cleric criticized those narrowing the lockdown to churches stressing that the directives affected mosques, and therefore shocking how the precautionary measures of the government to protect lives should be tagged ‘attacks on churches’.
He explained that his church donated their facilities to the government in Lagos, while a private residence in Abeokuta has been granted to the Ogun state government to support its efforts in the fight.
“This morning, I would like to bring ethical correction to some of the lamentations of certain people within the church over the ban of congregational worship in churches across the land, while markets and hospitals are allowed to operate.
“I am so glad that not only churches are prevented now from congregating, the mosques also are lockdown.
“The government order to open the markets to operate for a few days is to prevent hunger, especially in the life of daily earners because the palliatives from the government cannot go to every citizen,” Bakare said.
In a similar vein, Daystar Christian Centre led by Pastor Sam Adeyemi reportedly credited account members of poor members through the home cell structures and non-members numbering over 3000 with N5,000 each during the first month of lockdown as a means to lessen the effects.
So far, the church has twice credited identified members bank accounts making it N10,000 received by indigent members in two months as cash palliative to lessen the devastating effects of the lockdown caused by the Coronavirus.
The report also stated that to ensure that no member of the church, and even non-members, goes hungry, the church set up food banks to distribute foods and clothes to the needy, coordinated by the Benevolence Unit of the church.