Some Nigerians, among them celebrities, on Monday, staged a protest at the Redemption Camp on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway seeking the intervention of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Enoch Adeboye, in the state of affairs in the country.
The protesters especially want Adeboye to speak up on the heightened insecurity in the country.
The protest, which was organised by the Creative Industry Group, had celebrities in the likes of Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy; Friday Igwe, popularly known as Baba Fryo; Felix Duke; Eedris Abdulkareem and Mykel Parish, among others in attendance.
The protesters were not happy that Adeboye had been silent on the state of the nation.
Leading the group, Duke, lamented the rate at which people were being killed and kidnapped in the country, and urged Adebayo to speak up for the masses.
“A lot of people are dying; our women are being raped; men are being kidnapped and killed; children are being slaughtered and no one is talking about these. Any government that wants to change the orientation of the youth usually uses entertainment; so, we celebrities have decided to use our followership to influence people to speak up for the underprivileged.
“We believe that the RCCG is the biggest church in Nigeria and Adeboye has a lot of influence in the country; if he speaks up on the country’s security challenges, President Muhammadu Buhari will listen to him. The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, is his ‘son’; he (Adeboye) also has a lot of ‘children’ in the National Assembly, so his voice is very important.
“The people whom we met at the Redemption Camp all understood that the fight is not about us, but it is for the betterment of all Nigerians and the unborn children. We want him (Adeboye) to speak up so that efforts can be made to put an end to the killings. Even if he just makes a statement, it is ok,” Duke said.
In his own comments, Igwe called on Adeboye to use his influence to intensify efforts to secure the release of Leah Sharibu, who has been held by the Boko Haram terrorists for so long.
He said, “Adeboye has a loud voice; when he speaks, the government listens; so we want him to at least talk to the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbanjo, on this Ruga settlement issue and the killings of innocent people by Fulani herdsmen. We have also been too relaxed on the release of Leah Sharibu; so, we want him (Adeboye) to talk about it. We are not protesting that he is a bad person; we just want people to hear his voice on these issues.
“When we got to the Redemption Camp, the security guards tried to stop us from coming in, but we found our way in and kept protesting till we got to a point where the police used an armoured personnel carrier to barricade us. We continued protesting on that spot until the National Overseer, RCCG, came to speak to us and gave us an assurance that our message would be delivered to Adeboye. But we told him that if we didn’t hear from him, we would come back again.”
The Head of Media and Public Relations, RCCG, Olaitan Olubiyi, said the protesters’ complaints would be delivered to Adeboye, whom he said had embarked on spiritual preparation for the forthcoming convention of the church.