Lord’s Chosen Church Headquarter Shut by Lagos Government

The Lagos State Government has shut
down the headquarters of the Lord’s
Chosen and Charismatic Revival Church
on Ijesha, Oshodi-Apapa Expressway,
Lagos, southwest Nigeria over
environmental nuisance. headquarters
The Lord’s Chosen is founded by Pastor
Lazarus Muoka, who serves as the
General Overseer of the church.
Officials of the Ministry of the
Environment shut down the church on
Sunday morning and prevented the
worshippers from having their Sunday
service usually attended by thousands of
faithful.
Investigations revealed that the church
does not have solid waste disposal
facility. It burns its waste inside the
church premises, thereby exposing the
lives of its worshippers to serious health
hazard.
A substantial part of the sprawling
church lies on the Odo Asimawu Canal
drainage channel, thereby impeding the
flow of storm water.
The church also built its toilets on the
canal, thereby discharging all its human
waste into the canal.
In order prevent an outbreak of
epidemic, the state government had to
seal the entire church premises.
The government accused the church of
defacing and degrading the environment
and refusing to abate the nuisance even
after it had been served abatement notice
to upgrade the environment.
Commissioner for the Environment, Mr.
Tunji Bello said the church had
committed lots of environmental abuse
which it must abate before the massive
edifice could be re-opened by the
government as such illegality could not
be tolerated any longer.
According to him, the church did not
have proper waste management system,
adding that it burnt its refuse inside the
church, an action which ran fowl of the
environmental and sanitation law of the
state.
“The church does not have proper
sanitary system and they discharge their
wastes into the canal. Most of their
members trade on the expressway and
we don’t want that,” he stated.
Bello added that the church would only
be re-opened if it constructed new toilets
as well as bagged its solid waste as well
as managed such waste properly, saying
that the church must build a sewage
septic tank for the treatment of waste
water.
“The conditions for reopening the
church must include: complete
sanitization of the entire church
environment, putting in place proper
solid waste facility, stoppage of refuse
burning, removal of all structures on
drainage channel, building of new toilet
facilities, evacuation of solid waste
dumped inside the canal and so on,” he
said.
Bello assured that the state government
would not shirk its responsibility of
protecting Lagos environment and
ensure that its residents were protected
from environmental abuse.
The commissioner stated that the church
must also ensure that none of its
member trade on the expressway, while
the church must remove illegal
attachments built on drainage channel
alignment in the area.
He said any structure to be erected by
the church must be about 50 metres
away from the drainage channel and
ensure that the environment was kept
clean, after which the government would
re-open the church.
When P.M.NEWS visited the church this
morning, members of the church were
working frantically to clean up their
environment.
They have also begun massive
demolition of structures built on
drainage alignment.
The church spokesman, Pastor Chidi,
declined to comment on the closure,
saying he had not been officially briefed
by the General Overseer of the church,
Pastor Lazarus Muoka.