Pastor Kumuyi cancels South-East global crusade over IPOB threat

The General overseer of the Deeper Life Bible Church Pastor Kumuyi Williams has cancelled his scheduled crusade in Aba, Abia state Nigeria owing to security issues ongoing in the south-east part of the country. The crusade which was earlier slated to hold from May 24 to May 29, 2022 in Aba had been formally called off. An official of the global crusade has informed that a new venue will be disclosed for the crusade. The IPOB’s media and publicity secretary Emma Powerful had appealed to the 80-year-old cleric on Thursday to consider the insecurity and unrest in the region and call off the crusade. On Saturday, the spokesman of the Indigenous People of Biafra had alleged that political thugs plan to attack people at the crusade. He further accused the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN of playing politics and keeping silent on the slaughter of Christians in the country by some Muslim fanatics. He reiterated that the IPOB will not be silent to allow their people to be targets for harm and slaughter in the name of hosting crusade, especially as politicians seek to stain the IPOB name with such acts. Emma Powerful in a statement signed by him also said that pastor Kumuyi would be held responsible if any harm befalls people in the planned crusade. Part of the statement reads, “On our advice to the superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, we maintain that our advice should not be taken lightly because we will hold him responsible if anything happens to our people. Pastor Kumuyi and CAN should come out and accept full responsibility should anything happen to attendees of the crusade by political thugs seeking to destroy the image of IPOB”
In another statement, the Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders stated that there was no cause for alarm and encouraged the cleric to go ahead with the planned crusade. They restated that political campaigns and other crowd gathering activities were going on across the southeast region and no crises have been recorded on such. They added that the southeast is very safe and businesses have been moving smoothly in the state.