Kaduna Christians dare El-Rufai to demolish the Dunamis International Gospel Centre

CHRISTIANS in Kaduna State have warned Governor Nasir El-Rufai that they will resist his plans to demolish the Dunamis International Gospel Centre in the Kaduna metropolis under the pretext of urban development.

Governor El-Rufai had threatened to demolish the church and the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Agency (Kapsida) has already written to Dunamis church officials indicating that their facility may be demolished. In the letter signed by acting Kapsuda general manager Fatima Bambale, considered a prelude to demolition, the Kaduna State government asked the church to provide details of its operation in the state.

Titled Update of Religious Institutions within the State, the letter read: “I am directed to request you to furnish the agency with your details through the attached form. You are to reply within seven days of receiving this letter.”

In a swift response however, Dr Sunday Ibrahim, the secretary of the Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (Can), said Christians will resist any attempt to persecute them. He pointed out that Kapsuda’s letter was part of the government’s plan to embark on the persecution of Christians across the state.

Dr Ibrahim said:, “We write to express our dissatisfaction with the content of your letter and to remind the agency that it is a government agency and not individual establishment. Where the government, through the agency, finds it necessary to update religious institutions within the state, we strongly believe that the agency knows well enough the proper channel to follow which is through Can or Interfaith.

“We find it offensive, and suspect it as ill-conceived and inappropriate that the agency should write the individual church directly disregarding Can. This provokes in us a sense of suspicion that it is an attempt at using Kapsuda, which is a government agency, as a tool to persecute the Dunamis International Gospel Centre churches in Kaduna State.”

Over recent weeks, there has been an altercation between Governor El-Rufai and the general overseer of Dunamis International Gospel Centre Pastor Paul Enenche, after the kidnapping and death of a paramount chief of Adara last year. Christians in southern Kaduna have accused the governor of not doing enough to protect their lives and properties.