Abuja based Pastor and General Overseer of Firehouse Church International Worship Centre Bishop Emmanuel Esezobor has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the publishers of The Nation Newspaper to retract an allegation levelled against him through its online publication of 28th January 2020.
The story captioned “DRAMA AS MAN DIES IN COFFIN AFTER ABUJA PASTOR ALLEGEDLY PAID HIM N500,000.00 FOR MIRACLE SCAM” alleged that the man of God paid a sum of N500,000 for a fake miracle that later claimed the life of an unnamed trader in Abuja.
In a letter dated 30th January 2020 by his solicitors, G.O.C Owo & Co , Bishop Emmanuel Esezobor demanded the followings as a relief
Retraction of the story in its entirety, an apology published in Six National Newspapers including The Nation Newspaper, the delete of the unsubstantiated story as from its website as well as payment of Two Billion Naira (N2,000,000 only) for the damages to his person and reputation
Failure to oblige as requested, the Bishop threatens to institute legal action against The Nation Newspaper and its publishers at the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum.
It would be recalled that the same allegation being recircled was first made in 2016 , the Bishop came out to unequivocally deny it.
The story resurfaced again four years after its publication.
This was the copy of the letter sent to The Nation Newspaper by the solicitors to Bishop Emmanuel Esezobor
30th January, 2020
Our Ref: GO/LP/2020/07
THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The Nations Newspaper Online
c/o The Nations Newspapers Abuja Office
Zone 3, Abuja FCT
Sir,
DEMAND FOR APOLOGY AND RETRACTION OF YOUR ONLINE PUBLICATION
RE: DRAMA AS MAN DIES IN COFFIN AFTER ABUJA PASTOR ALLEGEDLY PAID HIM N500,000.00 FOR MIRACLE SCAM
We are Solicitors to FIREHOUSE CHURCH INTERNATIONAL WORSHIP CENTRE, NYANYA ABUJA FCT and BISHOP EMMANUEL ESEZOBOR (hereinafter referred to as “Our Clients”) and on whose behest and unequivocal instructions we write:
It is our clients’ briefing that your Online Newspaper published on the 28th day of
January, 2020 and posted by one Abiola Paul refers under the caption and wordings inter alia:
“Drama as man dies in Coffin after Abuja Pastor allegedly paid him N500k for Miracle Scam
According to multiple social media sources, an Abuja Pastor who paid a man N500,000 to use him as a miracle scam has been nabbed after the man died.
Below is what Chinasa wrote……………
Meet the Abuja Pastor That Offered A Trader 500,000 For Miracle Scam That Went Bad.
An Abuja pastor offered a trader 500,000 for the trader to be used as a miracle scam. The Trader was to pretend that he was a dead man and the Pastor will then raise him from the death unfortunately, the trader died in coffin before they could make it to the stadium where the pastor was holding his crusade in Abuja.
The wife of the deceased trader got police involved, the fake Pastor was arrested by the police.
However, the pastor has been released through the help of his influential friends in Abuja and he has gone back to the business performing strange miracle in his church in Nyanya Abuja
The name of the pastor is Bishop Emmanuel Esezobor and his ministry is Firehouse Church, located beside Niger-Delta Gardens and Hotels Checking Point Nyanya.
The so-called Bishop Emmanuel Esezobor pastors the hurch with his wife and they have huge number of people to come to their church for miracle and solution to their problems’.
It is our clients’ briefing that the entire content of the said publication published by you are fake, false, untrue, unfounded and maliciously conceived out of the figments of mischief makers imagination with the sole intent to bring our clients’ into disrepute, cause general and global public outcry against our clients’, rejection, stigmatization and total abandonment of our clients who currently have over 100,000 members and followers.
Also , it is our clients’ briefing that you retract, delete and reverse the ill-opinionated content of the said publication and tender an unreserved apology, a full page publication of the said apology be published the same in Six (6) National Dailies including your Newspaper namely: The Guardian, The Punch, This Day, The Sun, Vanguard and The Nations within seven (7) days from the date of receipt of this letter.
it is our clients’ firm instruction that pursuant to this matter, your publication has maligned, misled the general public and has greatly affected the membership of the church thus, we therefore instructed to demand the sum of N2,000,000,000.00 (Two Billion Naira) Only as financial cost to remedy the damage your malicious, scandalous and image tarnishing publication has already cost our clients. Yet, there is immeasurable, incalculable and unquantifiable faith damage which the same publication has caused on the Body Of Christ and our Belief System.
Furthermore, it is our clients’ briefing that should you fail to comply as stated we shall take legal recourse against you to protect the rights and privileges of our clients’ under our laws.
