From Austine Tule, Makurdi
Senior Pastor of the Spirit Life Christian Assembly, Thomas Shikaan has dismissed allusions that the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Benue State Chapter, was factionalized.
Shikaan in an interview with newsmen in Makurdi at the weekend described as most unfortunate attempts by a section of the body to throw it into an unwarranted leadership crisis, informing that issues bordering on who the authentic leader of PFN was had long been settled .
According to the Man of God, there was an agreement in March 2017, supervised by the governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom as well as the Tiv paramount ruler, His Royal Majesty James Ayatse which clearly spelt out terms upon which the next leadership of the body was to emerged.
Chief among the terms, he insisted, was to allow the immediate past Chairman of the body, Bishop Mike Angough to graciously complete his tenure of office and then hand over to Bishop Benjamin Kurudu who had earlier listened to counsel by elders of the body by stepping down for Angough during the last delegate conference.
Shikaan who is also the Chairman, Benue State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board, informed further that when it was time for the other side to honour the agreement by allowing Kurudu to emerge, politics started playing up with an aim not to honour same.
He emphasized that the Kurudu led leadership of PFN which had already been inaugurated remained the authentic and constitutionally recognized leadership of the body in the state.
Rev. Shikaan wondered why people who prophesied to be men of God would attempt not to honour agreements even when they have been beneficiaries of such.
He thanked Governor Samuel Ortom, the Tiv Paramount ruler as well as advisers of the body for having seen to it that terms of the agreement were adhered to by the installation of Bishop Kurudu as PFN Chairman for Benue.
It would be recalled that following a leadership crisis in the body, elders and stakeholders, it was learnt, met and arrived at a decision that Bishop Angough, upon the expiration of his tenure, should hand over to Kurudu which the terms spelt out would serve one term following which elections would be conducted.
The AUTHORITY however gathered that the Angough-led group in disobedience to the agreement, has gone ahead to inaugurate another leadership for the body in the state.
