“If I sleep a day in jail, it’ll take Nigeria a year to recover” – Pastor blows hot after being rescued from DSS by Fayose

An attempt by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest the founder of the Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleiman was thwarted by Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose.

Apostle Suleiman had been accused of inciting anarchy after he urged members of his church in Auchi, Edo State to resist killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

The pastor had told members during a church service to “kill and behead any Fulani herdsman who enters here by mistake.”

DSS operatives reportedly stormed Apostle Suleiman’s hotel room in Ado Ekiti, where he planned to hold a two-day crusade. The crusade began on Tuesday, and it had Fayose in attendance.

It was learnt that the operatives attempted to force their way into the pastor’s room.

Security men attached to the hotel were said to have insisted on knowing the DSS operatives’ mission, before Fayose arrived at the scene to rescue the pastor who had put a distress call across to him.

Apostle Suleiman said the DSS operatives had been trailing him before they stormed his hotel in the middle of the night.

“I came to Ado Ekiti for a crusade. But I had a premonition that I was being trailed after I preached that Christians should retaliate any attack or killings by the Fulani herdsmen. These Fulani herdsmen had turned many Christians to orphans and widowers but the time has come to protect ourselves,” Apostle Suleiman told journalists around 2am on Wednesday.

“I received several calls from hidden numbers trying to locate where I am and I had warned my security not to allow any Fulani man to come near me. So when the men of DSS came in the middle of the night I knew their mission and I had to call the Governor because if they arrest me, they will put this country on fire.”

Fayose, said the DSS operatives could have acted more responsibly by inviting Apostle Suleiman for questioning.

“I expected the security operatives to invite him if they have any issue with him instead of arresting him in the dead of the night after a powerful and spirit-filled crusade in my State,” he said.

“I personally attended his crusade and I think it is wrong for a man of God, who is armless, that could be invited to be ambushed. If they have any issue against him. Are Christians and Moslems under different dispensation of the rule of law?. That’s why I went there to rescue him. Let them kill two of us together. But when they saw my vehicles and the crowd, they fled.

“But we have information that instructions came from DSS in Abuja that the Pastor should be arrested. We are not in a fascist state, Federal Government must learn to respect the rights of Nigerians and freedom of expression.”

The governor, a strong critic of the Presidency, warned the Federal government against “putting this country on fire because religion is an emotional thing.”

Apostle Suleiman was taken to the Government House in Ekiti, where he bragged to journalists that if he spends a day in custody of the security operatives, the damage that will happen in Nigeria will take one year to be fixed.