Ongoing carnage in Gaza must stop, Says NCPC boss
The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC), Bishop Stephen Adegbite on Wednesday, May 8, called for a stop to the ongoing “carnage” in Gaza.
Adegbite said the commission did not support the killing of persons, even as children of God.
He made the call while answering questions from reporters in his Abuja office.
According to him, there has always been a war in the nation of Israel since he began pilgrimage exercises in 1999, adding that a lot of persons, including children, have died as a result of the war, and asked authorities to instead go after persons perpetuating the war between Israel and Gaza.
He said: “When you hear war going on in Israel, going on in Gaza, we don’t go to Gaza. There has never been any time that we went to Gaza, and I have gone on pilgrimage 24 times now. So, by the special grace of God, Nigerians will be safe in Israel, and nothing will happen to anybody. And every time that we started, since 1999 when I started going to Israel, there is no year there is no war. And when you read the scriptures properly in Revelations until Christ comes, there would continue to be war in Israel. Because Israel is surrounded by 14 nations who do not want them, and that war continues every time.
“But God has his name to be glorified in Israel, and he is protecting them. But that is not to say that what is going on in Gaza is something we will support even as children of God, no. The carnage going on in Gaza should stop, enough of that. A lot of people have died, children are perishing, and innocent people are dying, but the people who are perpetuating the evil have not been properly identified. Those are the people they should go after so that there will be peace at least for some time. But for us as children of God, Nigerians will be safe in Israel.”
Adegbite reiterated that the Easter pilgrimage will commence in June, noting however, that pilgrimage exercises will now only take place twice in a year, with the first being the Easter pilgrimage, and the second holding between December and February.
“We are starting with the Easter pilgrimage that is open now, and we are going to close it up by July, then we have the main pilgrimage that will start from November, and that will also end by February. So, pilgrimage in Nigeria for the Christian community, is no longer every month where ten people will go, twenty people will go, we are going to do it twice, and that is what we were known for in the past, so we are going back to that”, he said.
The NCPC Executive Secretary also stated that the review of the duration of the pilgrimage to ten days was to return the exercise to the way it was and to ensure that pilgrims had more time in the holy land.
He added that the Commission will announce the final cost for the trip in the coming week and that the figures will reflect official exchange rates, noting that the Commission did not get concessionary rates.
