A former President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Rev. Felix Omobude, on Sunday said nothing wrong in the Nigerian government calling for external help to stop terrorism in the country.

Omobude was reacting to the state insecurity in the country while fielding questions from journalists in Benin.
The former PFN President while that there was nothing wrong in Christians organising protection through appropriate channels during church services, however warned that it would be chaotic and more complicated if Christians chose to carry arms against the terrorist groups who said have been deliberate targeting them.

According to him, if anybody had prophesied that the country would be in this situation about 15 years ago, people would not have believed it “but here we are, it is very worrisome,” he said.
He said, “It will be irresponsible for a leader at certain levels for example to call for arms, to call for violence. Violence will give birth to violence, we don’t have another nation. So our restraint is because we believe that a united Nigeria will be the best for us and I hope that those in leadership don’t take our restraint for weakness.

“The church under the situation cannot call for arms unless you want to scatter things. We will continue to pray, we continue to advocate. We will continue to educate our people appropriately.”
Omobude said Nigeria has already been taken over by foreigners and that the argument that external forces coming in would impinge on the sovereignty of the country does not hold water.

He said as president of the PFN, he had consistently advocated for state police and commended President Bola Tinubu’s position on that.
“As president of PFN for eight years, we advocated the formation of state police policy. I was happy to hear recently that the president has ordered that that be done.

“The centralisation of the policing system in this country is anti-development. Society has gone beyond that. When I was growing up, we had a local government authority police.
“They had their duties, tax collection, environmental issues and all the rest. So I don’t see any reason why we should not encourage state policing.

“I heard that American people want to come and help us. Some people are saying it violates our sovereignty. I don’t think that is right, already, our sovereignty has been violated by these insurgents who came from another country and have taken us over. It is like the military itself is infiltrated. So I don’t see what is wrong in asking for help. For external help.”