The senior Prophet of Christ MercyLand Ministry, Jeremiah Fufeyin, has denied using the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC’s name to deceive Nigerians.
The church’s media outfit, MercyLand Television Deliverance Ministry, in statement signed by Sophia Iloyd, faulted a media report claiming NAFDAC was investigating the church’s “miracle water” and “soap.”
The statement emphasized that the church is law-abiding and recognizes the NAFDAC Act.
It asserted that the church has been using spiritual items in expression of its religious beliefs, but has never produced or sold consumable items to the public.
The church also stated that it has never deceived or dishonestly deceived any members of the public, stressing that the only pending petition against the church is from Martins Vincent Otse, who the church has sued for sundry allegations.
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According to the statement, the church had received a letter from NAFDAC’s Asaba Office inviting the Spiritual head to discuss the church’s miracle and healing spiritual items.
However, the church wrote to NAFDAC’s Headquarters office, Abuja, requesting more time to appear and communicated its position.
The church alleged that the nominal complainant to NAFDAC’s Asaba office forged the church’s receipts to bring a complaint, adding that there is an ongoing police investigation into the forged receipts.
The church emphasized that it has never used NAFDAC’s name to deceive the public and that NAFDAC has not written to the church or given feedback on these issues.
The statement reads: “We are guided by Section 39 and 38 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that guarantees all Christians and our Church the Right to freedom of religion without interference whatsoever in this regard.
“It is sequel to that, as a church we have been operating and guided by the tenets of our faith and biblical injunctions in the holy bible in this regard. We have been using certain spiritual items in expression of our religious beliefs.
“We also wish to state that Senior Prophet Jeremiah Fufeyin of Christ MercyLand Ministry has never used the NAFDAC name as an agency to deceive innocent members of the public.
“We wish to state that Christ MercyLand Deliverance Ministry was fully aware that the only pending petition against our Church is the one by Mr Martins Vincent Otse (alias Verydarkblackman) who the Church has since sued before the FCT high court on sundry allegations and matters.
“However the church was in receipt of a letter dated the 27th August 2024 from NAFDAC office extending an invitation to the Spiritual head of the church on the church miracle and healing spiritual item by the NAFDAC Asaba Office with the full designation as referenced in this letter.
“It quite unfortunate that as a law abiding organization, we did officially as an organization wrote to NAFDAC Headquarters office, Abuja on the short less than 12 hour time frame given to us to appear and by an official letter communicated our position in this matter to NAFDAC and then also sent another subsequent letter to NAFDAC.
“We also bring to the fore and knowledge of NAFDAC that the supposed nominal complainant to NAFDAC Asaba office actually forged the Church’s receipts in other to close himself with the right to bring a complaint before the NAFDAC office in this regard.
“We also wish to state that presently there is an ongoing police investigation of certain receipts that has indicted the nominal complainants to NAFDAC office , which same receipts is presumed to have been forged and used falsely in procuring the now investigated spiritual items by NAFDAC office.
“Moreso it should be noted that the alleged spiritual items sales receipts of the nominal complainants to NAFDAC in which he purportedly alleged to have used in evidencing a case in NAFDAC office, a look at same reveal that the position of the spiritual items receipt number are the same but different in other particulars with that normally issued by the church accounting office in the sense that vizaviz : That the nominal complainants receipts are different from the position in the actual receipt booklet and receipts in the custody of the church, the dates on the receipt are clearly and obviously altered different from church client official receipts.
