PFN national kicks as C’River chapter adopts PDP guber candidate

Cross River State chapter of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has adopted the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Sandy Onor, for the March 11 governorship poll.

Addressing newsmen, yesterday, in Calabar with a statement signed by the state Chairman, Pastor Lawrence Ekwok and two others, PFN said they took the decision to participate actively in the emergence of political leadership in Cross River State, following consultations and meetings.

He said: “A strategy committee, made up of 12 members, ten of them drawn from the highest policymaking organ of our fellowship, the State Advisory Council, (SAC), and a representative each from women and youth wings of the Fellowship, has met five times and interviewed the governorship candidates of APC, PDP and PRP. At their fifth meeting, the committee decided to vote individually, based on guidelines earlier set.

Ekwok said that at the end of voting by the committee, 11 out of the 12 members voted that the PFN should support the PDP candidatyre, Onor, while one member abstained from voting for personal reasons.
BUT the national body of PFN has dissociated itself from the decision and actions of the Cross River State chapter.

A statement, yesterday, signed by the National Publicity of PFN, Bishop Emmah Isong, quoting from the Bible (Ecclesiastes 11 vs 3) said: “How will the rain fall and the ground does not know?

Isong, who is also the General Overseer of the Christian Central Chapel International (CCCI), said: “For some days now, I have been inundated with calls, especially from politicians and senior pastors about the above memo, purported to have emanated from our PFN chapter containing instructions to our members on how to vote, come this Saturday governorship elections in Cross River State.

“Even though I neither heard of this decision nor was I ever consulted, my advice is that it is very important we tread very cautiously on this and other political matters, else we shall be seen as being partisan and lose our roles as spiritual fathers and mentors.

“Though we have the constitutional rights to air our views but let us avoid a situation, where the enemy will use politics to divide the church of the living God.”

He added: “We have prayed and fasted, it is now time for God Almighty to help us cast our votes wisely.”