June 30, (THEWILL) – The Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), has dismissed as “false” and “blackmail”, a report published by the Daily Trust Newspaper, to the effect that the Church indulges in forceful conversion of Muslims, including Almajiris, to Christianity.
The Church said in reaction to the publication that men of the State security Service (SSS), did not find any “twenty one Muslims/Almajiris being held hostage and converted to Christianity” in its premises, saying the “report is not only false and misleading, but a deliberate effort to discredit the Church and cause religious crisis.”
In a statement signed by the ECWA president, Rev. (Dr.) Stephen Baba Panya, the Church said ECWA as an organisation is widespread nationally and internationally, and believes in the rule of law, and to that extent will not involve itself in the infringement on the fundamental rights of any Nigerian.”
Besides, the Statement explained, the Church as an organisation is well organised and departmentalised for smooth and prompt functioning. “Among the numerous ECWA Units is the ECWA Discipleship Unit established under the ECWA Church-Related Ministries Department of the ECWA Headquarters”, the Statement explained.
According to the statement, “The Unit, among other activities, trains the less privileged in the society for capacity building, skills acquisition, Christian Ethics, and leadership with the sole aim of making them relevant to the society.
“Due to lack of space at the ECWA Headquarters, the Statement added, the Church acquired a private property within Tudun Wada residential in Jos as a temporary site for the training and housing of all trainees.
“As a practice, it said further, the Unit maintains a file for each student containing his or her personal data.”
It said, “the allegations in the said publication are complete falsehood because the trainees being persons of age, are available at any time for government officials to interact with and hear their stories.”
This was what happened, it said, “following a report by the Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI), in Jos, as we later understood, and the DSS visited our facility and found nothing.”
