Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, MFM, has accused one of its pastors, Lawrence Okechukwu Amuruche of telling lies against the leadership of the church with his claims that he sought assistance for an eye surgery and was instead given anointing oil and water.
DailyPost had re-published a report by Saturday Sun about Amuruche, 61, who cried out for help after the anointing oil, water and prayer points allegedly given to him by the General Overseer of MFM, Dr Daniel Kolawale Olukoya, failed to stop the cataract growing in his eyes.
Amuruche, who heads the Alakija, Satellite town branch of the MFM, said the cataract had already grown on one eye and threatening to start growing on the second eye if medical help did not come fast.
Irked by the media buzz the report generated, the church summoned Amuruche to its headquarters where he was asked to retract his claims in the report or risk sanctions.
However, in the company of Amuruche, his Regional Overseer, Pastor Adelabu, Pastor Martins Ukwu in charge of Special Duties, Festac region, and another member of the church, revisited Sun head office to tell their own side of the story.
They said Amuruche lied against the church, as he never requested for any financial assistance to undergo an eye surgery, describing his claim as an embarrassment to his children based abroad, his family and the church.
His words: “He lied against the church. His children who are based abroad, called to express their dissatisfaction over the publication. He did not only embarrass himself but his family, the church and some of us who are his friends in the church.
“It is embarrassing because MFM has come to the point that if it comes to the area of assisting or helping people, we are really very good at that and the testimonies are all over the world on the kind of miracles, signs and wonders that happen in MFM.
“We are a church that believes in the power of the Holy Ghost. We are a deliverance ministry and we don’t believe that there is no problem that God cannot solve but we still believe that some illness could be organic. There could still be some illness that could result to somebody still going to the hospital and going through surgical operation”.
While explaining that there are windows of help opened for Pastor Amuruche to explore before going public, the church’s spokesman said “The man in question is under full employment of the church. Common sense will tell you that anyone who is under the full employment of the church, if you want to go to the hospital, you ask for salary advance or loan from the people that you are working for.
“The organization that you are working for has a provision for loan and assisting people who make request for assistance. Amuruche did not make any request from his Regional Overseer neither did he make any request from the General Overseer. It is a very big insult to the church. He did not tell anybody in the church that he needs money to go to hospital. He lied against the church”.
The spokesman also insisted that he only knew that Amuruche had an eye problem on the pages of newspapers, saying “He is an assistant pastor in the church and he earns money from the church. It was from the newspaper publication that I got to know that he has an eye problem. Before the publication, he came for our regional meeting and he never mentioned to me that he has any eye problem.
“He told you people that he went to our General Overseer for counselling who gave him anointing oil instead of money. He did not in anyway visit him for that purpose. If any hospital has diagnosed that you need to go for operation, you don’t need to go for counselling or means of getting your healing. You just go straight away and apply to the church that you want to go for operation. He did not follow the normal proceeding of getting medical help from the church.
“There is one of our members in Festac, a security man, he was just discharged recently. It was the church that paid for his operation. There are several instances that the church has given money even to those that are not our members. He has to tell people his problem before they can find ways to solve it. If he claims that he has written an application, let him quote the date he wrote the application and where it was submitted, we are in a modern society.
“The issue is not whether he is blind or not but the fact that he never asked the church for assistance. We have very good welfare package for people. Daddy Odukoya gives scholarships and honors first class students, this is one out of many things that he has extended to members of the church”, Ukwu added.
All efforts to get Amuruche to respond to some of the allegations raised by the church failed as he was ordered to keep quiet and face the consequence of his action.
He disclosed that he had been forbidden to speak on the matter again.
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