Channels Television, a Lagos-based
independent 24-hour news station, on Sunday suddenly terminated a broadcast by
fiery pastor, Tunde Bakare, over claims the tone of the message was critical of
the Nigerian government, Premium Times reports.
Moment of Truth, a one-hour recorded
paid programme, through which Mr. Bakare broadcasts messages he preaches in his
church, The Latter Rain Assembly, runs every Sunday on the Lagos channel of the
station, between 5p.m. and 6p.m.
But 45 minutes into the programme on
Sunday, Channels terminated the programme just as Pastor Bakare was making
comments considered critical of the Nigerian government.
“We had to hurriedly take the programme
off air after he (Pastor Bakare) began spitting venom against the government
and saying things we cannot defend,” an official of the station, who asked not
to be named because he has no permission to speak on the matter stated.
The official did not say what those
comments were, but he insisted they were serious enough that Channels could not
afford to allow anyone to spread them through its station.
When contacted, the General Manager of
the station, Kayode Akintemi, confirmed he received complaints over the pulling
of Pastor Bakare’s broadcast. He however
said the station was looking into the matter.
Pastor Bakare told Premium Times he and
his church had not been given any explanation for terminating the programme.
“The broadcast is not free,” Mr. Bakare
said. “It is paid for and those in charge will write them tomorrow to demand
explanations.”
The pastor insisted Channels had no
justification for pulling his broadcast.
“There was nothing I said in that
broadcast that is subversive other than warning the nation that the forthcoming
election is laced with disaster and that if we must plunge into it, we should
be ready for the consequences,” he said.
In the broadcast entitled, “The
Gathering Storm and Avoidable Shipwreck – How to Avoid Catastrophic
Euroclydon”, Pastor Bakare accused the government of plunging the country into
political and economic disaster and warned of an impending storm.
He spoke of the “fundamental flaw in
the polity” and the gathering of the cloud ahead of a major storm.
Accusing the government of
ignoring warning signs and allowing criminality to thrive, Mr. Bakare argued
that the Nigerian economy had now crashed because it could no longer sustain
the massive corruption in the subsidy fraud.
The pastor, who declared his loyalty
for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu
Buhari, later identified the danger signs facing the country and the steps he
said are necessary to avert crisis before, during and after the forthcoming
elections.
According to him, the signs include:
Poor level of election preparedness
Acts of lawlessness and partisanship of
security agencies
Security risks across the country
Likely minority king-making
Looming constitutional and legal crisis
Impending post-election tension
Looming
economic collapse
Potential religious confusion, betrayals and persecution.
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