‘He changes from Pastor to Imam’ – Arewa group calls for arrest of CSO convener

Arewa Youth Network for Transparency has called on security agencies in the country to, without further delay, arrest of leader of the Civil Society Network on Economic and Social Advancement.

Meanwhile, convener of the group, Pastor Bishop Lawrence Ngene, who is being accused, has told Newspot that he uses the group to give people a voice in the face of political and economic issues in the country.

The Arewa group are saying that Ngene’s group is fraudulent, insisting that the coordinator himself goes by different names and parades himself as an Imam while he actually owns a church where he is the senior pastor.

In a statement signed by Comrade Musa Abdulkadir, the Arewa group noted that Ngene, who they said claimed to be Mr Abubakar Yari, was in fact one Mr Lawrence Ngene.

The group disclosed that Ngene is a Pastor/Bishop of Church of All Nations in the Karu area of Abuja.

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“It is on record that he led a prayer as Imam for Abba Kyari some months back. It is obvious that he is either a Muslim or a Christian as he deems fit.”

They wondered why the leader of a group calling for financial probity of the government couldn’t come out boldly with his name.

According to the Arewa group, “The faceless civil society groups lack verifiable facts hence they resorted to hiding their identities. Mr Mele Kyari has not rested on his oars in putting Nigeria in the good light in the world’s petroleum industry.

“We urge the Nigerian security architecture to investigate these groups. The President Bola Tinubu administration has shown capacity, hence we cannot as a group, sit still and watch some disgruntled element create smoke where there is no fire.”

This call was made after the members of the Civil Society Network on Economic and Social Advancement allegedly fought publicly in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja over sharing formula for alleged protest money.

However, denying the Arewa Youth Network for Transparency’s claim, Ngene said, “I’m a man of God. That’s the truth. Then a couple of these groups, if you find them, there are somethings you are not able to do from your pulpit and protest is not out of line if you want to lend your voice.

“If for instance you want to speak against those evil, you may not be able to do so [from the pulpit]. That’s basically sometimes I call the group to speak their minds on an ongoing issue. Not necessarily because of money.

“For instance when we spoke against violence before the #EndBadGovernance protest, we were just appealing to people not to go into violence.

“There’s no protest in this country that has ever been peaceful. So we used the opportunity to appeal to the people to shun violence.”

On the accusation that he sometimes acts like an Imam and uses the name ‘Abubakar Yari’, he said “No. I don’t do that. I have never, never [done that] and I’ll never.”