Pastor Poju Oyemade, the Senior Pastor of Covenant Christian Center has bared his position on the rape allegations involving Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo and Busola Dakolo. It appears that he is one of the first new-generation church pastors to actually take a stand on the matter and social media is loving it.
Pastor Oyemade starts by stating how hard he found it to watch the tape of Busola Dakolo talking about the rape issue, while empathizing with the mother of three on the traumatizing experience.
The pastor says he went ahead to call a “spiritual leader in the Body of Christ [he] believes Pastor Biodun defers in authority to” and they agreed that the first step was for him to step down.
Pastor Oyemade refrains from condemning Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo but he makes sure not to make light of Busola Dakolo’s story.
The man of God even goes further to apologize to any persons who may have suffered abuse through the independent Pentecostal structures. He accepts that the receiving of God’s call by only one man has made sanction processes in the church more difficult but says that is a reason for pastors not to take their role with levity.
He says, “This, however, makes it imperative that we go the extra mile to show a high level of compassion and sense of responsibility for people placed under our care or else what has brought our great growth may be what will destroy us”.
“For those who have been abused and exposed in our independent pentecostal structures, I deeply apologize and we will seek to build stronger structures through peer reviews and in our relationships.”
We can only hope that Pastor Oyemade’s decision to speak up on the issue will encourage even more religious leaders to speak up and work to get to the bottom of it.
As always, let’s know what you think about Pastor Poju Oyemade’s position on the issue in the comments.