Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the President and founder of LoveWorld Incorporated, better known as Christ Embassy, has said the fire incident at the church’s headquarters was not an accident but an avenue for bigger and better things.

He made this known during a live Sunday service at the church’s campground in Asese, Ogun State.

It was earlier reported that the church headquarters, located in the Oregun area of Ikeja, Lagos State, caught fire on Sunday morning.

This was revealed in multiple videos from the scene shared on X.com on Sunday.

Speaking on the incident, Oyakhilome said, “Nothing happens in the life of a child of God by accident. During the 2001 Ikeja Cantonment bombing incident, the building vibrated so much and we thought it was going to collapse.

“I thought to myself that if it collapsed, I was going to build a bigger, better one. At the end of the day, it didn’t collapse and we called the engineers to see if there was any need to bring it down and rebuild but it was still okay.

“Now that this has happened, we will build a bigger, better, and more glorious one and the devil will lick his wound.”

Officials of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service are also said to be at the scene to salvage the situation.

Sharing a video from the location, Augustine, tweeting as Chief_Augustin1 on X.com, wrote, “Christ Embassy Church on Billings Way, Oregun, is on fire.

“Serious fire is raging, and men of the Lagos State Fire Service are working hard to put it off. Thank God service hasn’t commenced fully.”

24 Nigerian girls who were being sexually exploited in Senegal’s Tamaccounda and Kedougou regions have been saved by the combined efforts of the Nigerian Embassy’s agents and an NGO with a base in Senegal.

Salihu Abubakar, the acting ambassador of the Nigerian embassy in Dakar, Senegal, revealed this to the Nigerian News Agency in Dakar on Sunday.

He claims that the majority of the girls, who are between the ages of eleven, thirteen, and twenty-four, are being trafficked to Senegal via Cotonou, the Republic of Benin, and the border between Mali and Senegal for sexual exploitation in the Tamaccounda and Kedougou Regions.

“These girls and many more are being trafficked to Senegal, through Cotonou, Benin Republic via Mali to the Senegal border for prostitution,” the diplomat said.

Abubakar said preliminary investigation revealed that most of the girls, who were school dropouts were from Edo and Delta, adding that a few of them were from Imo and Abia while two others were from Plateau.

He, however, said of the 24, 22 were already repatriated weeks ago while the two other ladies were repatriated to Nigeria on Saturday and had landed in Nigeria safely.

The diplomat could not immediately give the details of the health status of the victims and other information regarding the time they spent while undergoing sexual exploitation in Senegal.

The envoy said that the successful repatriation of the girls to Nigeria was a clear indication of the strengthened international cooperation in combating human trafficking between the embassy and the Senegalese-based NGO, “Free the Slaves” (La Lumiere in French).

“Our main goal and number one priority is to discourage the trafficking of our Nigerian girls to any part of the world for prostitution under any disguise,” Abubakar said.

Credit: NAN

Weary of the leadership struggle between the Julius Abure-led Labour Party (LP) and his camp, the Deputy National Chairman, South, of the LP, Lamidi Apapa has collapsed his faction and accepted Abure as the party’s national chairman.

With this development, the leadership tussle between the two camps may have also been laid to rest.

However, the Apapa’s faction has stated that both factions reconciled to fight the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

The crisis between Abure and Apapa almost polarised the party to the extent that both filed separate appeals during the presidential election petition.

In what was described as an anti-party activity to destabilise the party for the benefit of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Apapa had filed a petition to discontinue Obi’s presidential petition against President Bola Tinubu.

The NLC had backed Abure during the war of attrition between him and Apapa.

With the new peace deal between Abure and Apapa, the two camps would team up against the plans by the NLC to take over the party.

Abure, who had enjoyed NLC’s support, fell out of favour with the union following a contentious national convention held in Anambra State that returned him and all his loyal members of the National Working Committee (NWC) to office three months ago.

This compelled the NLC Political Commission to void the new leadership and set up a transition committee, saddled with the task of engaging stakeholders of the party and conducting a fresh convention in 90 days.

NLC also embarked on a series of picketing at LP secretariats nationwide, insisting on an all-inclusive convention but Abure had his way.

A source at the LP national secretariat, who preferred anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, explained that Abure felt the urgent need to close rank with the Apapa’s faction following the open revolt and pressure from the NLC and his perceived differences with Obi.

According to the source, “it is the only logical way for him to have a united front against the threat of the NLC in particular. I believe you already know Abure has a long history with Apapa and Abayomi Arabambi before now,” the source explained.

When contacted, the factional spokesman of Apapa’s camp, Abayomi Arabambi, confirmed the development.

Arabambi told THISDAY that they had no problem with Abure from the outset because they knew he was being misled by NLC leadership.

“Yes, it is true. The reconciliation was done to fight a common enemy.”

When asked who the common enemy was, he said: “Peter Obi and the NLC, particularly the NLC President, Joe Ajaero.”

When reminded that the Abure-led party had reserved the 2027 presidential ticket for Obi, the spokesman of the Apapa faction said “That is a complete fallacy.”

He said: “We are together to stop all those political hawks from taking over our party. We thought they (NLC) were fighting for a just cause. But it is very obvious they only want to take over our party and we are not going to accept that.

He added: “I also want you to know that there is nothing like the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign here anymore. It has been dissolved. Everybody has reverted to former governorship and presidential candidates. We don’t want disinformation from the Labour Party.”

The National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, also confirmed the reunion to THISDAY, saying it was not out of place for Abure to extend olive branches to aggrieved members of the party.

According to him, both leaders reconciled to move the party ahead.

He said: “They have reconciled and Apapa has reverted to his earlier position as the Deputy National Chairman, South. Apapa pledged solidarity with the Abure-led National Working Committee.

“The Labour Party is one united party now except some little pockets of opposition led by Kenneth Okonkwo. We are sure that sooner than expected, he will join the mainstream party led by Abure,” Ifoh added.

Ifoh stressed that it was because of the reconciliation that Apapa had been speaking in favour of one united political party led by Abure.

He also disclosed that there were ongoing talks with the Ajaero-led NLC to put the Labour Party in good position for the politics of 2027 and the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo scheduled later this year.