Aso Rock Chapel not relocated, says VP

 

Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Laolu Akande, on Wednesday, responded to the intense condemnation trailing a report that the Aso Rock Villa Chapel has been relocated.

Akande described the report as false, saying a procedural adjustment had not in any way amount to relocation.

Akande’s response came amid hours of social media backlash instigated by an online report that President Muhammadu Buhari had relocated the Chapel.

The media aide said it was not fair to accuse the President of relocating the church when what happened was “the sorting out of procedural issues.” He insisted that it was baseless to assume that Buhari was hostile to Christians in the presidential villa.

“The claims that Buhari moved against Christian activities in Aso Rock Chapel have since been shown to be false.

“The sorting out of procedural issues cannot be a fair basis to accuse the President of moving against the Chapel,” he tweeted.

The fresh social media controversy was sparked by a report that Buhari was strictly advised by hired Senegalese spiritualists to shut down the Chapel.

The report claimed that the spiritualists objected to the continual existence of the religious centre, as it was affecting their rites in the villa.

For several hours today bloggers and Buhari’s critics feasted on what the online media described as fresh facts on the status of the chapel.  

Beyond the relocation, social media users scrutinised the essence of housing religious temples in the villa, with many insisting that neither a mosque nor a church should have been sited there in the first place.

Kayode Ogundamisi, Omo Jesu and several other social media activists led their voices to the controversial issue. Many of them advised the claim that the chapel was causing noise pollution should be looked into, after which a fair decision should prevail.

The reported inconsistency in the declaration of assets of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, also made the list of issues that shaped social media activities on Wednesday.

As many people called on he to show good example, Saraki tweeted back, alleging that the Code of Conduct Bureau might have come after him because of his anti-corruption disposition.