Many had thought that the criticisms surrounding the birthday celebration of Convener of Arise Women, Dr Siju Iluyomade would have been taken over by other topical issues in the Nigerian media space, but it has rather continued to flourish with social media still awash with articles written in different tones, all probably aimed at knocking down the massive achievements of Dr Siju, especially in the area of empowering the underprivileged in Nigeria. It also appears to be a plot at stigmatizing her husband, Pastor Idowu Iluyomade who is fortunate to be the head of the Apapa Family of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
Meanwhile, a top pastor in the RCCG hierarchy has confirmed that the ultimate plan of the critics is to lean on the situation to fulfil their long time sinister plan. This, according to information, is being spearheaded by the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, which is allegedly aimed at removing Pastor Idowu Iluyomade as the Pastor of City of David parish and Head of the Apapa Family.
Sources close to the G.O. revealed that some top RCCG members actually are leveraging on the criticisms that trailed Mrs Siju’s birthday celebration to sponsor writeups against Pastor Iluyomade and the only purpose, according to these sources, is to take over the control of the 14-storey Trinity Towers built by the COD parish and hand it over to Adeboye’s son who will convert it to RCCG Headquarters Worldwide with him presiding.
The pastor who doesn’t want to be quoted, revealed that “as an insider, I can tell you that all the noise you have been reading about the birthday of Pastor Siju is majorly coming from a script already written to discredit the achievements of the Apapa Family of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor ID and his wife, Dr Siju Iluyomade. It is not about the birthday or death of Herbert Wigwe, the plan has been on since the construction of Trinity Towers”.
Speaking further, the pastor said; “how can you talk so much just on a birthday celebration to discredit a woman who has used all her life and her NGO, the Arise Women Organization to give real positive image to RCCG through her empowerment programmes that target the less privileged in many parts of the country? There may be consequences if the G.O. listens to these advisers and I have told some of my colleagues that the hierarchy of the church needs to be careful if we do not want an implosion”.
Speaking further, the pastor said; “even on the day of the birthday, no fewer than 5000 underprivileged who thronged the church at City of David went home with Iluyomade’s Arise Pink Bucket filled with foodstuff. The pictures and videos are there. I can tell you that it is even because of this woman that some members have chosen to be a part of RCCG. You can’t take the good image she has given RCCG away from her”.
Another top member of the church, who is a professor and top government official, revealed that the news coming from the office of the G.O. is that he is planning to replace Pastor Idowu with his son, but that will never happen. According to him, “we are hearing some rumours alleging that our G.O., leaning on the wrong advice, wanted to replace Pastor Idowu with his son; it is a big joke! This is a Parish started from scratch in 1995 by our Pastor, everyone collectively rally roynd to build the feat we are achieving now and all credits has always been given to Pastor Adeboye as the GO. We at the Apapa Family are united behind our pastor and the wife at this period. Our brother that died was a great member, we mourn him and we are still mourning him. People should desist from misrepresenting the facts about his contributions to the church. Over 3000 members both within and outside the country contributed to building the Trinity Towers, no single individual can do this. Of course the church supported his contributions with some loan facilities. Pastor Iluyomade organized a service in his honour and that of others who died in the crash. In fact, he wept on the alter that day. Even Dr Siju, during the thanksgiving of her birthday, the first thing she did was to eulogize late Wigwe and a minute silence was observed in his honour”.
However, we have it that, indeed, the rumour about handing over the City of David and Trinity Towers to Adeboye’s son has already overwhelmed the City of David parish congregation and this has allegedly strengthened their resolve to stand solidly behind their pastor.
Also, the continuous agitation all over RCCG parishes now is that Adeboye was handed RCCG by the Founder and General Superintendent, late Josiah Akindayomi, who hailed from Ondo State despite having his own family. But now, the G.O wants to victimise Pastor Iluyomade, his loyal son in the Lord, in order to hand over the parish to his biological son.
Our correspondent, however, gathered that some elders and senior pastors of the church are now trying frantically to meet with Pastor Adeboye to resolve the crisis and save the church from possible implosion.
