Friday, 2nd June, 2023, can easily be described as a red letter day for the Shepherd and entire congregation of the Celestial Church of Christ, Overcomers Parish, Ajah, Lagos. On that day, a Hausa labourer named Dogo was contracted to evacuate the soak-away pit in the church premises, but lost his life in the process …
Friday, 2nd June, 2023, can easily be described as a red letter day for the Shepherd and entire congregation of the Celestial Church of Christ, Overcomers Parish, Ajah, Lagos.
On that day, a Hausa labourer named Dogo was contracted to evacuate the soak-away pit in the church premises, but lost his life in the process of carrying out the assignment.
An irate mob, claiming that the Shepherd and congregation of C.C.C Overcomers Parish, had murdered the labourer for ritual purposes, attacked and razed the church to the ground the following day.
The Shepherd of the parish, VSE Aso James and his assistants were brutalised and only escaped with their lives by whiskers. Property worth millions of naira were stolen and destroyed.
Most disturbing however was the fact that the media went agog with the allegation that the Celestial Church of Christ had killed the victim for ritual purposes. It got so bad that members of the church were attacked in their homes and on the streets of Ajah, Lagos.
The name and image of the Celestial Church of Christ had never been so battered!
Irked by this development, a small group of like-minded members of the Church came together and began to hold virtual meetings. Their objective was to rescue C.C.C, correct the damaging narrative being circulated about the church in the media, and launder the battered name and image of the fold.
In the group were VSE Sammy Sotomi (UK), VSE Segun Folorunsho, VSE Kola Olaiya (UK), AVSE Smart Ogunbunmi (Austria), AVSE Gbolahan Oshin (UK), Superior Evangelist Obafemi Adewale, Superior Evangelist Tony Onoh, Superior Evangelist Andrew Ebalunode, Superior Evangelist Kayode Ajala, Superior Evangelist Dayo Olaifa, Superior Evangelist Bankole Agunsoye, Superior Evangelist Muyiwa Ariyo (UK), Superior Evangelist Dele Alabi (UK) and SVMSE (Dr) Ade Tinubu.
The group was named The Think Tank Forum. They raised a war chest from personal donations and it was through the group’s intervention that the culprits of the arson at Overcomers Parish were apprehended and charged to court. Not only that, the group’s effort made it possible for an autopsy to be carried out on the deceased labourer and the result of that autopsy absolved the church of any complicity in the allegation of ritual killing.
The autopsy result made it clear that the deceased labourer, Dogo, died of CLOSED CRANIOCEREBRAL INJURY, meaning a traumatic brain injury caused by an outside force, usually a violent blow to the head. What this tells us is that the deceased labourer must have hit his head on hard concrete when he fell into the soak-away pit in the process of carrying out the evacuation.
A Police Investigation Report was also issued absolving the church of any complicity in murder and ritual killing.
Having achieved the foregoing, the Forum expressed a desire to be dissolved. However, impressed with the sacrifices made, the efforts of the like minds that make up the Think Tank Forum and the positive results that their efforts yielded, His Eminence, Reverend E.M.F Oshoffa, Pastor and Spiritual Head of the Celestial Church of Christ Worldwide on Thursday, 25th July, 2024, approved that the VSE Sammy Sotomi led Forum should metamophorse into a formal standing Committee of the Church known as the Think Tank Committee.
The Committee is to continue to exist as a totally independent body that is neither an appendage of the Board of Trustees nor the Pastor in Council, C.C.C. Worldwide.
This pastoral approval was given after the Committee presented copies of the Police Investigation Report and the Autopsy Report to His Eminence, Reverend E.M.F Oshoffa, at the pastoral residence in Lagos.
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Comments
Michael O Ishie
Wow! Such a positive achievement by the like minded person who made up the committee and the church at large. It’s applaudable.
While I commend this laudable effort, I think allowing for such to remain is an introduction of what would seem as an association within the church. As subtle as it may be, the THINK THANK COMMITTEE would in no time crave rooms for other fellows who might not be as well meaning as the THINK THANK to come up with associational tendencies in the name of another committee or other catching names that would leave no doubt in the mind of the relevant authorities as to gaining approval. But in the long run if associations begin to thrive and proliferated in the church, there’ll be divisions on associational lines, division on status line, and this might further cause disunity in the essence of the church’s creed as per being united as one indivisible body.