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BREAKING: 8 repentant militants, kidnappers become pastors in OPM Church
Eight repentants members of the Niger Delta militant and kidnappers undergoing rehabilitation in the Omega Power Ministries rehabilitation centre are now pastors in the church.
Eight repentants members of the Niger Delta militant and kidnappers undergoing rehabilitation in the Omega Power Ministries rehabilitation centre are now pastors in the church.
Speaking with NAN on Monday, the General Overseer of the church, Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere said the repentant militants and kidnappers changed after a divine encounter through evangelism organised for some of them in their various camps.
“I preached to them and many of them hearkened to salvation call and gave their lives to Jesus Christ.
“Before I embarked on this move, I bought some estates to relocate them.
“Initially when I preached to them, because I could not relocate them out of their place, it was easy for them to go back to their old ways.
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“So, I decided that the best way to approach them is to change their environment and that became the first step of their healing process,” he said.
He said that he took them to the estate, got them baptized and began to teach them the words of God from complete liberation from crime.
“These kidnappers have wives and children, so what we did was to put their children in the free school operated by the church and at the same time established businesses for their wives.
“We started teaching them different skills and by the grace of God, after they acquired the skills, some said they wanted to be pastors.
“And, currently we have eight of them that are full-time pastors in OPM branches.
“We took them to police headquarters in Rivers, located at Moscow Road and they took their biometrics, pictures and fingerprints as well as a record of guns submitted and the crimes they committed.
“With this, the police have their full data in case they go back to crime. However, I know they won’t go back to crime,” he added.
The cleric also said that the programme had recorded 95 per cent success as the repentant militants and kidnappers had not returned to crime since they surrendered.
Chinyere further said that efforts were on to ensure that children of the less privileged, who were not in school, get the desired education through the church’s 15 free schools located in Rivers, Bayelsa, Abia, Akwa Ibom, and Lagos states.
“My target is to have these rehabilitation centres in every state of the federation to help people who roam about because the school is free,” he said.