By Sunnewstimes Team.
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Abia State chapter, has said that members of the Task Force Committee on COVID 19, set up by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu are crude and lack proper education to carry out their legitimate operations.
They disclosed further that the tasks Force disturb, disrupt and harass Churches in session during their inspection and monitoring.
“These actions have raised great concern, because they barge into the church, videoing, obstructing and harassing members during worship, which have been reported from various places of worship in the state”.
They also accused the tasks Force team of demanding and extorting money from Ministers, cautioning that anybody using the law enforcement apparatus to extort money from the Church is luring the Pastor to sin in the presence of God, they explained.
Decrying the method in which the Committee disrupt worship sessions in churches, PFN appealed to the State Government to educate them on how best to handle churches and other places of worship in session.
The Abia PFN scribe, Rev. Blessed Amalambu, who spoke in Umuahia while appraising the activities of the COVID-19 tasks Force Committee and its problem in the state, said that the Committee lacks knowledge that the church is a major stakeholder in the fight against the Corona Virus pandemic.
He expressed belief that the fastest way of fighting this pandemic is to collaborate with God, who has the mandate and power to heal.
“Anything that is done outside God cannot work and the Church being a place where the Almighty God is being worshiped, should be respected by all. When the tasks Force come to a church that is in session and the Minister is preaching or teaching, courtesy demands that they should give God the respect. The church is not a beer parlor, nor a social gathering, it is a worship center, a spiritual place, where a little disturbance can cut off the concentration of the worshipers.
“We are not against the COVID-19 tasks Force committee, who are helping to curtail the spread of the virus, but while coming to monitor or inspect the church or the level of compliance, they should come with sense of respect and honor to God, by quietly taking whatever record they want, as well as take the Minister’s cellphone number, with which they can call him after, if there is any offense. A pastor preaching the gospel of Christ should not be stopped from preaching because of the presence of COVID-19 tasks Force team”, the Head of Clergy warned.
He appealed to the Abia State Government and Secretary to the State Government, Barr Chris Ezem, who is the Chairman of inter- ministerial committee on COVID-19, to call the team to order and properly guide them to embrace high level of decency, decorum and civility in the fight against COVID-19.
“We have educated our churches on the need for physical and social distancing and maintaining normal numerical strength of 50 or lesser worshipers at a time, as well as keeping all the precautionary directives from NCDC and government to avoid the spread of the virus”, the PFN Scribe said.
