Fiery Lagos-based
General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has declared
that he would not relent in the struggle to ensure that the administration of
President Goodluck Jonathan become accountable and sensitive to the people of the
country.
Pastor Bakare, who
spoke on Sunday following his invitation by the State Security Service (SSS)
days ago, also denied that he was arrested by the security officials, but that
instead, it was an opportunity for the security officials to appeal that he should
tone down his preaching and statements about President Jonathan.
He said he would
never tone down his preaching or succumb to pressures until the President
became aware that he was representing the people of his country.
“We have been lied to
as a nation and there is no sincerity in this government’s words or actions.
“Can you imagine
that, as the nation is burning, Dame Patience, the First Lady, is busy pursuing
and obtaining the status of an absentee Permanent Secretary?
“Does this make any
intelligent sense except to political morons and imbeciles?”
He also expressed his
pessimism about any satisfactory outcome concerning the current arraignment of
the alleged oil subsidy suspects.
According to him,
“concerning all the window dressing, the shenanigans and the charade going on
in respect of the subsidy thieves, it is my considered opinion that the efforts
of this government cannot deliver justice, neither are they meant to.”
Concerning his
encounter with the SSS, he said he was supposed to travel out of the country
after his press conference, but decided to stay back so that people would not
think he had absconded especially since he was not around previously when an
earlier invitation from the SSS came.
“I therefore stayed
put, and, true to type, they showed up at my house in the pursuit of their
legitimate duties the following day, Monday, the 23 July, 2012, at about noon.
“I would have ignored
the whole episode and moved on to other things today but for the need to
clarify some issues and to share the vital lessons we can glean from the SSS
episode as well as other matters that cropped up following my visit to the
State Security Service department. Let me deal with the lessons first,” he
said, in a statement he titled: ‘How To Change Government Peacefully: Social
Mobility Is No Longer Frozen In Nigeria.’
Pastor Bakare, who
said he was treated with utmost civility by the men of the SSS in Shangisha
area of Lagos, added that he did not stay there for eight hours as reported by
some media houses but that he only spent one hour between 3.10 pm and 4.10 pm.
“The State Director
himself had earlier visited me here at The Latter Rain Assembly in November
2011, making the same request that I tone down my message where politics is
concerned, especially with regard to the person of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“I gave the State
Director a signed copy of Sunday’s lecture and promised to send him past
publications and documents from the SNG office,” he said adding that he would
continue to pray for the SSS officials as they continue with their legitimate
duties.
Pastor Bakare, who
quoted copiously from the Bible to back his message, used the opportunity to
warn those he referred to as agents of the state within the church who are
influenced by the crumbs they get to desist from such.