By Sam Eyoboka & Olayinka Latona

BORN June 6, 1941 into a Christian family in Erin-Ijesha, Osun State,   Pastor William Folorunsho Kumuyi completed his secondary school education in 1961, and the started teaching mathematics at Mayflower School, Ikenne, Ogun State the following year from where he proceeded to the University of Ibadan, graduating with a first-class honours degree in mathematics in 1967. He became born again in April 1964.

Kumuyi, founder/General Superint-endent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, has authored several books and in April 2013, he was named as one of the “500 most powerful people on the planet” while the Deeper Christian Life Ministry was named as “the world’s largest Mega-church” by Foreign Policy magazine (FP).

There are indications that certain persons taking advantage of the soft-spokenness of Pastor Kumuyi, reputed to be Nigeria’s foremost holiness preacher, to provoke a man of God. His Deeper Christian Life Ministry is currently at dagger-drawn with certain land grabbers who have allegedly laid siege on the church’s landed property along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Ogun State.

At the recent Easter retreat of the church, some senior officials led a pack of journalists to a virgin land said to have been purchased by the church several years ago paying several millions of naira to the Ogun State Government for Certificate of Occupancy. It was a devastating sight; a perimeter fence demarcating the piece of land from that of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, at the cost of over N100 million was pulled down by people said to be land grabbers.

Narrating the church side of a protracted battle for the possession of the land, head of the church builind committee, Pastor Alfred Ogene lamented the plight of the church, saying; “We are here to put it on record that Deeper Life Bible Church is the rightful owner of this land. We have acquired this land many years back and have taken possession.”

According to him, in 2009 when the church first attempted to built a perimeter fence it was pulled down by the people we bought the land from and had to embark on another 1,500 meter fence a month ago costing the church a whopping sum of over N25 million but overnight they came and destroyed it.

Debunking media publications which portrayed Deeper Life Church as the land grabber, Ogene claimed; “We have all the documents to this land and with due respect, Deeper Life does not just get to somebody’s land and acquire it. But some people, who claimed to be children of the owners, pulled down our fence in 2009, which was worth N10 million. We decided to rebuild the fence and demarcate what we had left after they had resold a large portion of the land. But they came back and demolished that one too.

“The challenge we have is that some of the men who sold this land to us are already late, and their children are saying at the time the land was bought from their fathers, they were still toddlers, and they must also eat from the cake.

“We told them outright that it was not possible because we have all the documents. In fact, at a point, we went to court because they were having so much issues with us and we eventually got a perpetual injunction on January 18, 2012 restraining anybody including others we do not know, meaning that we rightly acquired the land and paid all the due considerations,” he narrated.

He went further to state that the church paid the sum of N750 million for C of O which is besides the original money paid to land owners, vowing that the records are available.

“When we started fencing, they just came overnight after we have left site and pulled down the fence. The cost is put at N25 million. The one they pulled down in 2009 was cost the church about N10 million,” he maintained.

Continuing, Pastor Ogene said Deeper Life stands on the infallible Word of God and would prefer to live at peace with everybody, stressing that the young lads are currently taking advantage of this and were telling us to talk about Owo ilagbe (Entry fee).

“In our efforts to make peace, we had three or four meetings with the traditional ruler of the community and Oba of Igbehin, Oba Festus Makinde. The discussions didn’t yield much fruit because they came up with a proposal for the church to repurchase each plot at the cost of N8 million. They brought armed militia to the land who were shooting all over the place. We had to retreat,” he narrated.

Lamenting the plight of all those who seek to live in accordance with biblical principles and maintain peace with all men, Ogene, who was flanked by two legal advisers to the church, Nojeem Tairu and Ark-Stewart Itua, said despite the court injunction which was duly pasted all over the length and breadth of the land, the militia men provided cover for the community people and other persons to erect structures on the church land.

During the visit, some construction work was ongoing in parts of the land measuring about 44 multiplied by 2.5 hectares which is why the church authorities wondered why some media houses had gone to town with reports that Deeper Life Church had encroached on private land without investigation.

Barrister Ark-Stewart Itua confirmed that the church had written several petitions to the Police and they have sent their men in time past to look at the place and urged the church to fence the place.

“We told them we decided to stop the fencing because the people pulled down the initial wall. They then instructed the church to apply for reinforcement whenever we want to fence the place and when we wanted to begin the fencing project we informed them accordingly and they gave us security. This havoc was committed in the night and there was nothing the church could have done, more so as a religious organization and for what we are known for, we could not bring thugs and they took advantage of that,” the hapless lawyer lamented.

The troublers of Israel have not denied knowledge of the transaction between the church and their ancestors, because, according to the church lawyer, the descendants even “tendered their family receipts which we used to apply for the C of O and it was granted by the previous Oguun State government administration.

Also speaking on the issue, Mr. Nojeem Tairu, another lawyer for the church said the visit was fitting opportunity for the media to hear the other side of the story.

“You have been hearing all kinds of malicious stories but the truth of the matter is that what brought us to this stage is the price that the church is paying for peace. We wanted peace because we are people of peace and have been pursuing peace on this matter. This land was acquired by the church legitimately decades ago. Every relevant document is there both with the state and with these so called Omo Onile that are troubling us at this point in time. Now, what brought this trouble and hullabaloo now is this: This new generation of land owners are not denying that the church has the ownership and title over this land. Their contention is that as at the time this land was purchased by the church from their fathers or fore-fathers, they were toddlers.

“They had no share of the sale. They made series of demands on the church including conceding to them part of the land for their use as what they called village extension project. Later, they came up with the proposal that church should repurchase the land at N8 million per plot. That was the break-point of the peace meeting we held at the Olu of Igbehin palace on January 22, 2015. Earlier, they demanded for owo ilagbe, owo iwoko (money for clearing the bush and money paid before entering the land as well as foundation money)” Tairu narrated.

What was amazing, according to the lawyer, was that, notwithstanding the illegality and immorality of their demands and extortion, the church was still amenable to make for peace “because our slogan is: ‘follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord’ and this we did extensively. We made some concessions to them and agreed to pay N10 million as part of global settlement which I would call money for peace because under the law, there is nothing like money for clearing the bush, money for entering the bush or foundation money. Once one has bought the land, he owns everything on the land from the point of the land, down to the sea below and up to heaven. This is what the law says.”

He lamented that people will always want to take advantage of one’s peaceful disposition. “They know they do not have a name neither do they have a reputation and since Deeper Life does, they would see if through their unlawful demands they could drag the church name to the mud. They blew it through the press and negative story is always the most interesting. It is cheer cheap blackmail. All the land, the structures and those houses all belong to Deeper Life. What therefore did in the recent time was to make a demarcation, so that they would not take the remaining land,” the lawyer counselled.

A petition addressed to the Inspector General of Police dated March 25, 2015, said the hoodlums were led by one Prince Muraino Banjoko of Threeco Construction Company Limited.

It reads: “The said Prince Banjoko is a notorious local warlord, ruthless gangster leader and incorrigible land hustler.

“However, the church soon realised that the new generation of the vendor families and land hustlers were not representing anybody other than their dubious and selfish selves, more so as other members of their families honourably dissociated themselves from their unlawful activities against the church.”

The Police, according to the church in the petition, appears to be partisan as it turned around and started arresting some innocent members of the church, who were detained and subjected to “excruciating and humiliating interrogation by the police” at the Anti-Robbery Squad, Adeniji Adele, Lagos.

The petition alleged that the hoodlums had since taken advantage of the compromised police position and the recent prolonged strike by the judiciary workers earlier in the year to embark on massive sale of the church’s land.