Family appeals to church over property

A former member of the Living Faith Church aka Winners’ Chapel, Lagos, Adeniran Olawale, has appealed to the leadership of the church to intervene in a dispute between his family and a pastor of the Winners’ Church branch at Agbelekale, off Ekoro Road, Abule-Egba, Lagos.

The problem, according to Olawale, started when the family asked for an upward review of the rent the church was paying.,this is after the church had used the property for more than five years rent free and the review coming after paying the same rent for seven years.

“The church refused to pay, and moved to another place after their rent had elapsed three months and owing backlog of electricity bills of several years,” Olawale explained.

Speaking further, he said: “After the church moved out of the building without any notification, a whole lot of things were damaged. These include electricity connection, a pumping machine that led to the death of over 1500 catfish. The entire compound was left in a heap of mess with no clean up whatsoever. Glasses, nails, dangerous sharp objects still litter the property till date and have caused injury to occupants at different times.”

During the brickbat that occured between the Pastor of the church, the administrative arm of the church and the family, Olawale’s wife reportedly lost a pregnancy, according to him, caused his family great psychological and physiological distress that has affected their mental health, coupled with their loss of source of livehood

According to Olawale, before the crisis, the church had expressed its intention to buy the property. “But the family rejected the offer, and ever after, there had been one issue or the other,” he stated, adding that apart from several complaints made to the church and entreaties to resolve the dispute, nothing was done.

He also revealed that a petition was sent to Canaanland, the headquarters of the church over the problem, but up untill the time of this report, nothing had been done.

“It is our firm belief that in bringing this issue to the public space after our relentless effort to have the case resolved peacefully that we might be healed of this assault and damage to our psyche, and also that the church would put a searchlight on itself and make amend and perhaps put in place mechanisms to forestall future occurrence.”

Olawale further appealed to the leadership of the church to act on the matter.