A NIGERIAN pastor who wielded an unloaded AK47 while preaching at his church has been charged.
In a statement, the House on the Rock Abuja Church said the pastor had been preaching about faith.
‘Pastor Uche Aigbe, in a message about fighting the good fight with spiritual weapons, carried an unloaded gun to illustrate his message on “Guarding your Faith.”’
They said Aigbe had been a leader at the House on the Rock since 1999 and has shown ‘exemplary leadership.’
‘However, he realises that even with the best of intentions, carrying a gun to illustrate his message was ill-advised and regrettable.
‘Without hesitation, Pastor Uche has acknowledged the gravity of his actions and apologises unreservedly for them.’
The church said they rejected all forms of violence.
‘We stand on the good news gospel of Jesus Christ, which embraces peace and goodwill for all mankind.’
The church said they were cooperating fully with the authorities as they carried out their investigation into the incident.
‘We will continue to engage internally to ensure this break in protocol does not happen again.’
According to their social media pages, the church has a congregation of at least 7,000 people on a Sunday service.
Social media users had mixed reactions:
One user, Onyeka Emma, said: ‘This message has gone viral. The publicity is good. The sermon will be forever in people’s mind,’ Omolade Amaka Abuah posted, ‘Love this, taking responsibility, acknowledging the wrong and apologising unreservedly. Always proud of house on the rock.’
But Bassey Kiliman Umoren was unimpressed, saying: ‘That wasn’t necessary. Was he teaching toddlers? Why did he do that? You don’t brandish an AK-47 riffle to teach adults about spiritual weaponry.’
