27112022

PAGE 24—SUNDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 27, 2022
2023: Nigerians should forget about
religion — Prophet Dagunduro
By James Ogunnaike,
Abeokuta
The Shepherd in charge of
Celestial Church of Christ
(CCC), Mount Sinai
Parish,Abeokuta, Ogun State,
Prophet Samuel Dagunduro, in
this interview, speaks about
“wonders of God” in the church
and the forthcoming general
elections in the country. Excerpts:
Talk to us about yourself
and how you started this ministry…
This ministry began 16
years ago. When I received
the call of God, I had
to go and learn how to be a
clergy as a Levite. When the
prophet that trained me realized
that I was competent
enough to head a church, I
was then made a prophet. In
the last 16 years, I have gathered
a lot of experience in the
ministry. My boss gave me
thorough training.
Humble beginning
When this church began 16
years ago, it was with a
thatched structured. We started
with bamboo trees and
palm fronds. Later, we erected
canopy. We used the canopy
for some time. Today, we
thank God because, with the
help of God and people,
whom God has used us to deliver
from their bondage, we
now have structure. Such people
come back to appreciate
God through donations and
support to the building and
other programmes of the
church.
How has God been manifesting
himself here?
By Efe Onodjae
ethodist Church of the
MTrinity, celebrated its
103 Choir anniversary , Sunday,
at its Cathedral at Tinubu
square, Lagos, with soul
lifting renditions .
The celebration began with
a morning and evening services
with the choristers
adorned in aesthetic robes
rendering melodious thanksgiving
songs through the swell
of the band and tuning of an
archestra , to appreciate God.
Speaking during the service ,
Very Rev Dr Oyeyemi Sodipo,
appreciated God for sustaining
the choir anniversary
since 1919.
• ‘How for 16 yrs God has helped us to deliver
pregnant women safely’
I want to thank God for
manifesting himself in the
Church. Since the beginning
of this ministry, the church has
recorded many miracles. I
want to thank God once again,
especially in the lives of pregnant
women. Any pregnant
woman that visits this regardless
of her condition and situation,
she delivers safely. We
have a special service for pregnant
women called 'Celestial
Clinic' and it holds 3pm. We
encourage all pregnant women
to partake in the spiritual
exercise. All pregnant women
attend the service from three
months of pregnancy. Pregnant
women that attend the
service usually come with
water, which we pray on and
bless and when they drink the
water, no matter the condition
or sickness they may have,
God always manifests himself
through the water. They always
receive their healing.
We have different spiritual
programmes for pregnant
women during the clinic service.
The spiritual clinic ser-
•Prophet Dagunduro
vice is not meant for our members
only. Pregnant women
from other faiths are free to
participate and this does not
make them members of our
church. Any pregnant woman
that comes for the programme
will have safe delivery
regardless of anything she
might have been diagnosed
of. Even if she has been told
that she will deliver through
Cesarean Session (CS), she
will have normal delivery by
the grace of God. We have a
lot of pregnant women who
God has helped us to deliver
in this parish. Aside from pregnant
women, through this
ministry, God has delivered
many people from different
bondages. We have a special
vigil every Friday. Through
this vigil, many people, in their
hundreds, have received their
healings, set free from bondage
and satanic powers. At
this vigil service, there is deliverance.
Nobody has come
to this vigil with his/her problem
and went back empty
handed except the person
doesn't have faith. Once you
come here with faith, you will
surely receive your miracle.
Care for the needy
Apart from meeting the spiritual
needs of the people, we
also take care of the welfare
of those that seek our assistance.
In our little way, we
ensure that we empower those
in need. We share God's love
in this church and the church
is growing
Have you experienced any
challenge in the ministry?
The Bible told us that “there
is no one we would send to
the war without his calling
being certain”. There are challenges.
I am a hardworking
person and I pray a lot. I thank
God that the Holy Spirit is assisting
me to overcome my
challenges. His grace is with
us in this church and we are
fighting and winning our battles.
One of the challenges we
face is that at the junction that
leads to the church, where the
church signpost is erected,
sacrifices are being
placed there. It doesn't
make sense for people to
be seeing sacrifices when
coming to church at
dawn. On our own, we
tried to change the narrative.
For over ten years,
we take away the sacrifices
placed at that junction,
but we shall continue
to do our part with
prayers. There are series
of challenges and confrontations
from the host
community, but since we
are on a call, we leave the
fight to God. I could recall that
about three years ago, I had
an illness that almost took my
life. It was God that saved me.
But God has been helping us,
all the way.
You just marked your anniversary,
tell us something
about it?
Recently, the church celebrated
its 11th anniversary
and we thank God for his
mercy and blessings upon the
church and its members.
Though, there were challenges
before the anniversary, we
thank God that made it possible
for us to overcome the
challenges and raised people
that supported us from different
parts of the country. The
church members were very
happy, likewise the community
members because we had
more than enough to share to
them. It was a huge success.
As a clergyman, what is
your take on the 2023 elections?
Nigeria is a country that's
blessed with different resources
by God.
The scriptures tell us that we,
as citizens, should respect our
leaders and obey them because
it is God that put people
in positions of authority.
In the forthcoming elections,
Nigerians should forget
about religion. Whether Muslim
or Christian, whoever becomes
President, what's important
is that God should
lead them to the right way;
people should be at peace.
Welfare of Nigerians should
be their priority. Necessary
amenities that will make life
bearable to the masses should
be provided.
Let us remember that the
leaders are also human beings
like us. Therefore, we
should always remember
them in our daily prayer. As a
prophet, I join other prophets
and religious leaders in praying
and fasting for our leaders,
so that they will succeed.
Nobody is above mistake. So,
we should continue praying
for them.
Methodist Church choir celebrates 103 anniversary
While reading from Jeremiah
23:1-6, Colossians 1:11-20
and Luke 23:33-44
during the homily, he appreciated
members of the
choir and the entire congregation
for carrying on with the
joy of God, inspite of the state
of insecurity in the country,
as well hunger and other challenges
.
The choirmaster, Brig.Gen
Charles Bossman, explained
that the ceremony was a century
long tradition that meant
so much to them as it could
be likened to Saint Paul Choir
London.
He disclosed that preparation
for the ceremony started
eight months ago.due to the
significance of the event which
creates opportunities for discovering
new talents and instigating
the quest for excellence
among choirs.
He said: "Methodist church
has a rich heritage of good
church music. The hymns,
chants, anthems, have to be
sung to near perfection. The
Choir practise itself is like a
school that takes choristers
through rigorous training in
Choral Church Music and
everything that will make the
Choir sing to internationally
acceptable standard are usually
employed. Lagos was
carefully selected for this festival",
he stated.
Minister tasks Council on appointment of
new Rector, as Yabatech graduates 7,454
By Adesina Wahab
inister of Education,
MMalam Adamu Adamu,
has charged the Governing
Council of the Yaba College
of Technology, Yabatech,
to continue on the path of
transparency and fairness
while selecting a new Rector
for the College.
Adamu, who gave the
charge during the 34th convocation
ceremony of the institution
in Lagos, said the
ministry was already grappling
with fall-outs from selection
processes of new
helmsmen for some of its
tertiary institutions.
The minister was represented
on the occasion by a
Director in the ministry,
Mrs Vivian Wategire.
The tenure of the incumbent
Rector, Engr. Obafemi
Omokungbe, comes to an
end by the end of January
next year.
Media need to respond to the anxiety of
indigenous peoples —Adeoye, JODER Director
By Kennedy Mbele
HE Director, Journalists
Tfor Democratic Rights,
JODER, Mr Adewale Adeoye,
has identified the need for the
media to respond to the anxiety
of indigenous peoples across the
country, particularly those
whose inheritance were affected
by government's developmental
programs.
He advised indigenous peoples
to adopt what he calls Insigenoue
Peoples Initives, IPI,
and not to rely on 3rd party for
the struggle and campaign, but
to develop organizational capacity
and present their positions,
using local and international instruments
available to them.
Adewale made the observation
while speaking on the topic
'Using Media to Sustain Development
of Indiginous People'
during a two-day training of
media practitioners on 'Effective
and Impactful Reporting of Indegeneous
Issues towards National
Agenda for Peace and
Building Conflict Prevention',
organized in Abuja' by the Resource
Centre for Human Rights
Education, CHISED, International
Press Centre, IPC, and
JODA, with the support of Mac-
Arthur Foundation.
He also noted training, investigative
reporting, reward for
professionalism, network of journalists
on indigenous issues, as
some of the steps to be taken by
the media to sustain the development
of indigenous peoples
across the country.
Asserting that the media cannot
do it alone, he said: "Create
your own story using modern
technology that can be accessed
through the social media. Cry
louder..."
In his contribution, DG,
IPC, Mr Lanre Arogunde,
called on the media to come
to the aid of indigenous peoples
by bringing their plight
he Ezendigbo1 of
TAbaranje, Chief Boniface
Okparaku has called for
urgent steps to be taken on the
challenges of insurgency ravaging
Orsu Local Government.
Speaking during the ORSU
Interactive Get-together, organized
by the Orsu LGA Development
Union (OL-
GADU), in Lagos with the
theme ‘Peace and unity as important
tools for Community
Development 2,’ Okparaku
urged all Orsu songs and
daughters to ensure normalcy
is returned to the Local government.
In the same vein, the Dean
of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Nnamdi Azikiwe University,
Awka, Professor Festus Okoye
who was the guest lecturer
added that "We can help to
promote peace within our
community by encouraging
good relationships with our
neighbours.”
Pastoral shenanigans
By Femi Aribisala
I
was a young believer
at church in Lagos
when I received the gifts of
healings. (1 Corinthians
12:9). The owner of the
building where the church
was situated was one of Nigeria’s
pioneer industrialists,
a man by the name of
Odutola of “Odutola Tyre
Soles” fame. He was a
multi-millionaire in his 90’s
at the time. But he had one
affliction: he was paralysed
on one side of his body.
The pastor of the church
decided that I should go and
pray for the healing of the
landlord. So, one Saturday,
we drove out of town to Ijebu
Ode to see him.
The man was in good spirits.
But he complained to us
that his children wanted him
dead so they could get hold
of his property. He said he
opened the newspapers one
morning to discover there
were obituaries placed by
his children saying he had
died.
This made what happened
next all the more embarrassing.
The pastor introduced
me as a gifted
member of his church full
Already, 30 persons, including
two professors are jostling for
the seat.
The minister, who commended
the Council, headed by Prince
Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, and
Omokungbe for the achievements
recorded in the last five
years, also expressed support for
the N50 billion Endowment
Fund recently launched by the
College management to revitalise
facilities there..
Listing some of the achievements
so far recorded by his administration,
Omokungbe
thanked the staff, students and
the Council members for their
support.
He noted that a number of
staff were able to benefit from
postgraduate scholarships given
by TETFund and other agencies,
while collaboration with institutions
within and outside the
country had brought a lot of
positive developments to the
College.
"To boost our internally generated
revenue, the Yabatech
Consult, the business arm of the
of the anointing to heal. He told
him Jesus had sent us to pray
for his healing. But there was
one small condition: The Lord
wants him first and foremost to
give our church his building.
When I heard this, I wanted to
crawl into the ground and hide.
I was so embarrassed and angry
to have been included in
these 419 schemes.
Mr. Odutola was not impressed.
It was clear that he was
familiar with this type of manipulation.
He smiled and
pointedly refused to say anything
about giving our church
his building. Nevertheless, we
prayed for his healing and left. I
realized from then that I had to
be careful in my dealings with
the pastor.
Coming this December 2022.
"KINGDOM DYNAMICS:
WHY PASTORS DON'T GO
TO HEAVEN" by Femi Aribisala.
(Available in Nigeria and
abroad).
Palathingal marks golden jubilee wedding anniversary
n Indian doctor, identi
Afied as the second medical
doctor to join the Archdiocese
of Onitsha, after the Civil
War, Dr. Vincent Palathingal
and his wife, Elizabeth, will
today, celebrate their Golden
Jubilee Wedding Anniversary
at Ola Sisters Chapel, St.
Agnes Catholic Church, Mary
Land, Lagos.
According to a statement by
to the attention of government.
He urged journalists
to seize the opportunity offered
by the current political
campaigns to ask candidates
the solution they
have on the travails of indigenous
peoples as is being
experienced in the Niger
Delta, FCT, Abuja and
other parts of the country,
if voted into power.
INSURGENCY: Stakeholders call for normalcy in Orsu
On his part, President
General of OLGADU, Hycenth
Okonkwo who expressed
concern over innocent
casualties said: "There
is a need to identify the
cause of the problems and
assist government in solving
them.”
Palathingal on behalf of the
family, the event which will
be celebrated alongside his
Golden Jubille Medical
Service Anniversary and
48th Anniversary of uninterrupted
Medical Service
in Nigeria, will feature a
Holy Mass by the Archbishop
of Lagos, His Grace
Most Rev. Dr. Alfred Adewale
Matins, begining from
The Chairman of the planning
committee, Emeka Ezeh
added that "We are concerned
about the recent sad events within
the local government hence
the choice of the topic is to stress
on the need for peace and unity
among our people."
From left: Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen,
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha,
Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Aishah
Ahmad, CFA, Deputy Governor, Operations, Central Bank
Folashodun Shonubi, during the International Financial Inclusion
Conference 2022 dinner held in Abuja recently.
5pm.
•Dr. Palathingal and his wife,
Elizabeth