The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos Province 14 held a peaceful protest on Sunday, May 22 beside Isolo general hospital headquarters of the church in compliance with a directive from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
CAN, the umbrella body of all Christian denominations had earlier directed that all Christian denominations in Nigeria should hold a peaceful protest to condemn the killing of Deborah Samuel, a student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto on the ground blasphemy.
Samson Ayokunle, the president of CAN had on Saturday issued a circular to churches to hold the peaceful protest.
“In view of the foregoing, I urge you all to protest by placard-carrying within the premises of your churches or local CAN secretariat,” the statement read in part.
According to a statement Christian churches are to stage a peaceful protest on Sunday, May 22, 2022 in all the regional and provincial headquarters, except where there is volatility.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos Province 14 held a peaceful protest on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/KDUiYjPPQx
— BusinessDay (@BusinessDayNg) May 23, 2022
Members of RCCG Lagos province 14 from its 180 parishes were gathered at The Vine Centre (TVC) headquarters of the province with placards with the inscriptions such as ‘God is Watching’, ‘Let’s be our brother’s keepers’, ‘Don’t defend the in-defendable’, and ‘Let’s live together in peace’, among others to demonstrate against what many termed unlawful and barbaric murder of a youth in the name of defending their god.
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However, efforts by BusinessDay to get the provincial leaders of the church to talk to the press proved abortive as none of the pastors were willing to speak to the media on behalf of the church.
Recall that Deborah Samuel a 200 level Economics student of Shehu Shagari College was tragically and unfortunately killed by her fellow students over alleged blasphemy on Thursday, May 13, 2022.
Fillers from the people who were in the environment where she was killed stated that Deborah only reminded her colleagues who ordinarily turned their platform to something else, that the WhatsApp platform was meant for information like “past questions if there is a test or an assignment.
And this should have ordinarily been taken as a welcome reminder for those who were truly in school to learn, adding; “It was said that her voice note ended with a phrase, ‘which prophet?’”
It is worthy of note according to the report that no name of any prophet was in her voice note. But being a Christian in a presumably Muslim-dominated environment, it was assumed that the phrase was referring to Prophet Muhammed.
According to the perpetrators of this ungodly act, Deborah blasphemed their prophet and was worthy of death. Even some supposedly learned or rather enlightened members of the concerned community voiced their support for the gruesome murder of the young lady.
