A Non-Governmental Organization, Christian Prevailing Movement (CPM) has said the court decision which discharged and acquitted the founder and Pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), Rev Biodun Fatoyinbo, of the rape case instituted by Busola Dakolo has vindicated faithful members of the church for standing by their founding pastor while the storm lasted.
This was contained in a statement signed and issued in Abuja at the weekend by Isaac Okonkwo, the Publicity Secretary of the organisation while congratulating the Church and her Pastor. CPM said the outcome will increase COZA on all sides.
We congratulate the Senior Pastor of COZA, his family, friends and the loyal members of the Church who refused to abandon the Church and the Pastor. The victory, no doubt, will help Pastor Fatoyinbo to do more for the Kingdom of God.
The statement revealed that “We learnt that there were pressures being mounted on members to leave the Church because of the claims which the judge described as “cruelty and injustice”.
The statement further affirmed the position of members of the Church who stated that “We have absolute confidence in our God-sent father, mentor, counsellor and great servant of God, Reverend Biodun Fatoyinbo.”
“You made a righteous choice to stand by him in the days of his adversity and the pains of public humiliations over claims which, according to the Judge ‘carries more cruelty in them than justice’ We thank God for justifying His servant and for not allowing the will of the adversary to prevail over him and the huge heavenly ministerial assignment He entrusted in his hands”, CPM maintained.
The organisation which among other things advocates peace and unity of the Church in the country posited that “From the beginning, we insisted against the earlier argument of his lawyers to have the case thrown out as a result of its ‘frivolous and borders on extreme wickedness’ because we wanted the whole case to be heard by all because we have been fully and firmly persuaded that Fatoyinbo, is innocent.
“We are however pleased the way the case eventually turned out. The Honourable Justice’s judgement saying ‘It is for the reasons I advanced herein before that I declare this action as a vehicle of injustice, judicial intimidation and thorough abuse of judicial process carrying in it an overload of dormant claims and injustice. It must and is hereby dismissed…’
According to the Judge, ‘…there is no escape route for the Claimant’s claims. They are all statute barred and the doors of this Temple of Justice are permanently shut against them. Forever and ever they can never be revived, litigated and/or ventilated'”. “We completely agree with the Pastor that this victory belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ and that he bears no grudge against those responsible for the trauma and public humiliations he and the Church suffered along with his immediate family. Our prayers include but are not limited to the healing of the wounds and genuine repentance of those who were used in one way or the other to attack the Church that our Lord Jesus Christ built with His precious blood.
