The House on the Rock Church has expressed regret over the action of its pastor who wielded an AK-47 on its pulpit last Sunday.
The pastor, Uche Aigbe, was arrested by the Police in Abuja after a video of his action went viral on social media.
In a statement on Monday, the church said the pastor, Uche Aigbe, preached a message about fighting the good fight with spiritual weapons and carried “an unloaded gun” to illustrate his message on ‘Guarding your Faith.’
House On The Rock said Uche has been a leader in the church since 1999 and has always shown exemplary leadership.
“However, he realises that even with the best of intentions, carrying a gun to illustrate his message was ill-advised and regrettable,” the statement read.
“Without hesitation, Pastor Uche has acknowledged the gravity of his actions and apologises unreservedly for them.
“As a church, House On The Rock rejects all forms of violence and we stand on the good news gospel of Jesus Christ which embraces peace and goodwill for all of mankind.
“We are cooperating fully with the authorities as they carry out their investigations into this incident, and we will continue to engage internally to ensure this break in protocol does not happen again.”
The Police Command arrested the pastor over the unlawful possession of firearm.
He was arrested alongside the Church Chief Security Officer and one Inspector Musa Audu, according to the spokesperson for the Federal Capital Territory, Josephine Adeh.
“The pastor whose message and demonstrations were tagged inciting by various media and social media users was arrested in the early hours of Monday 13th February 2023, along side the Church Chief Security Officer and one Inspector Musa Audu, who was on duty on the said day and had unprofessionally released his rifle to the said pastor without permission or recourse to police authority.
“While discrete investigation has commenced, members of the public are urged to shun actions or utterances that is in breach of extant laws as the law is trite and all violators will be adequately sanctioned,” the police stated.
