Church donates over 10,000 items to citizens

The 2018 Christmas donation, a yearly programme put in place by the Foundation of Truth Assembly (FOTA) was initially planned to cater for about 10,000 beneficiaries. However, the unprecedented crowd that trooped out from Sari Iganmu, Orile, Yaba and other parts of Lagos, to benefit from the rice, fried chickens, vegetable oil, clothing items and free medical treatments, did not only overwhelm the presiding pastor, Reverend Yomi Kasali, it also indicated that Nigeria has a lot to do to address poverty and unemployment.

The programme, which held in one of the open fields at Orile on Saturday, was scheduled to start at 10:00a.m. under project Five Loaves and Two Fishes but excited residents of Orile and environs who have been anticipating the gifts gathered at the venue as early as 7:00a.m. forcing their way into the arena.

By 10:10a.m. when the donations kicked off, a portion of the Orile-Mile 2 Expressway was nearly shutdown except for the security personnel that took up the task to control the crowd.

Interestingly, thousands of housewives with their children, street boys, popularly known as ‘Area Boys’, and people with divers religious backgrounds including Northerners residing in the area, set aside their religious affinity to be part of the church’s gesture.

Standing in for the presiding pastor, one of the senior clerics in the church, Pedro Omontuemhen, said the event was in the spirit of the yuletide season and a bid to cushion the effect on poor Nigerians. He said the humanitarian outreach was meant to put smiles on the faces of indigent citizens.

The empowerment programme has made impact on the people of the community but decried the poor state of his organisation to continue to carry out the humanitarian programme every time. He disclosed that the event was the 10th in the series since the church started it in 2008.

One of the beneficiary, a Muslim, Kadija Adedara, expressed gratitude to the church and the Rev. Kasali for putting smiles on their faces during the yuletide festival.