28-year-old crisis in Christ Apostolic Church to end soon —President

President, Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Supreme Council, Pastor Gabriel Lagunju, has assured that the 28-year old crisis in the church which led to the formation of two factions,  Supreme Council and the General Executive Council (GEC), would soon come to an end.

He gave the assurance  while delivering his presidential address at the annual Pastors’ Conference of the church, held at the CAC Ile Aanu, Alasepe Prayer Ground, Ikire, Osun State.

Pastor Lagunju who represented by the general secretary of the church, Pastor Joseph Oguntile, said the peace process which was demonstrated at the 2017 conference by the exchange of visits by representatives of the two governing councils of the mission, is on-going, stating that the unity which would  be achieved necessitated the two factions using the same  theme, “Prepare for the next move of God”, used for this year’s pastors’ conference.

While noting that the crisis could not be resolved overnight, he solicited for the patience and understanding of members

He also urged them to confirm any news about the unification process from genuine sources rather than listening to rumours and taking the laws into their hands to campaign against the church leaders on any issue.

He said, “The 24-member peace committee (composed of the two Presidents and other leaders from both councils) had also continued to meet gradually discussing and resolving the various issues involved in the Mission’s unification project.

“Since the 28-year old crisis could not be hurriedly and genuinely resolved without some level of patience and the consideration of some “give and take “ principles, the entire Mission (through the leaders in the peace meetings) agreed on some joint programmes (to start familiarizing with ourselves)  which were heartily welcomed by the entire members of the Mission.

“The expected joint gathering on the same venue  for the Pastors’ Conference is being gradually processed along with the joint leadership for the mission at the appropriate time.  (As already reported to the Supreme Council at one of our meetings, the choice of joint leaders for the entire Mission is already one of the eleven key issues in the unification agenda of the peace committee being tabled for discussion stage by stage).”

Speaking on national issues, Pastor Lagunju called for elected political offices to be made part time to  save the country from politicians who are more interested in personal interest.

He said in a situation where politicians sell their property in order to get political office they would more less be interested in the  putting their personal interest above the interest of the people, stating that Nigeria will get better when those with feasible means of livelihood are elected into political offices on part time basis.

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While decrying the present spate of decampment by politicians in the country, he maintained that they are doing this more or less to serve their personal interest, lamenting that the present situation in Nigeria has made the ordinary Nigerians to lose hope in the future of the country.

He said, “ Without mincing words, the present situation in both our political and socio-economic systems in Nigeria, continues to get worse daily thereby prompting its innocent citizens to lose hope in the country’s future. With the coming of the 2019 general elections and the deduction drama being witnessed daily from our politicians, it needs no stress to understand that the benefits of our democratic system is no more corporate but rather personal to the politicians who now run from one camp to the other to search for lucrative positions for themselves.

“And this is why we are referring again to our corporate advice to our national leaders to let politics be a part time assignment for men and women who already have their personal jobs through which they maintain themselves. Or how would you expect someone who had to sell his/her properties and also possibly obtain loans just to struggle for a political office not to prioritize his personal interest when elected into office.”