Oyedepo says he will lay his bare hands on Covid-19 patients and they will be cured

LIVING Faith Church general overseer Bishop David Oyedepo has declared that he would embrace and breathe upon Copvid-19 patients without any fear of contracting the virus on a move that will cure them

Like most other countries, Nigeria closed down markets, sports centres, places of worship, restaurants, cinemas, etc in response to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Over the last couple of months, however, there has been a gradual easing of the lockdown, with markets allowed to re-open and of late, there has been a partial ban on religious worship.

Bishop Oyedepo's Living Faith Worldwide church, also known as Winners Chapel, is one of the largest in the world, attracting thousands of worshipers who throng to its Canaanland headquarters, which has a capacity of 50,000. Worshippers pay a monthly tithe representing 10% of their earnings to Winners Chapel but with the lockdown, this source of revenue has dried up, hitting Nigerian evangelical churches hard.

Speaking on the federal government’s restriction on social gatherings, Bishop Oyedepo lamented the fact that churches are not allowed to open. He dismissed claims that places of worship are vulnerable with respect to the spread of Covid-19 and has always maintained that if clergymen were allowed to lay their hands on Covid-19 victims, they would be cured.

Dismissing suggestions that he could be in danger by touching t6hose affected, Bishop Oyedepo said he would not wear gloves to attend to Covid-19 patients but would lay his bare hands on them to receive healing. He added that no condition on earth will make God’s covenant come to no effect.

Bishop Oyedepo said: “Covid-19 cannot be any reason why your own Breaking Limit package will not be delivered. Can you imagine anyone bringing a coronavirus patient to me and I won’t lay hands on him?

“Will I wear gloves to lay hands on them? “I will lay hands on them, breathe into them, embrace them. What you carry is eternal life, it’s not human life.”