TheCable<\/a>, the cleric asked the minister to bring 24 APC flags for prayers. The cleric also demanded 1,000 pieces of saxophones\/trumpets, with the least expensive Nigerian fairly-used grade costing a total of N50 million and the imported grade-one from China at N130 million in total.<\/span><\/p>\nAyodele asked Adelabu to bring the items by April 1. He later extended the grace till April 4.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSir, I don\u2019t do this, but because of the love I have for you,\u201d the primate wrote.<\/span><\/p>\nThe cleric told the minister that he had sent him several letters while he was CBN deputy governor and other times to the minister in Ibadan, but there was no reply. He repeatedly made requests to call the minister, who told him he was on pilgrimage. Ayodele asked him to \u201crecite almu nasira 200 times\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\nThe cleric told the minister that what he was doing was based on instruction given to him by God. Ayodele repeatedly told the minister that he would rule Oyo state.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201dI have divine advice for you sir, which can help a lot sir, kindly pick my call,\u201d a part of the text message read.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201dDo vigil and the angel of God is coming to hear request by 1am\u2026I don\u2019t want you to lose the coming election. That is why I\u2019m following the instructions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIn response, the minister told the cleric that he could not afford the expensive items.<\/span><\/p>\nAfter the incident, Ayodele, while speaking in his church, said Adelabu had failed and would not become Oyo governor.<\/span><\/p>\nIn some video clips seen by TheCable, Ayodele said Adelabu had made mistakes and his message to the minister was a \u201cwarning from God\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\nThe cleric dared the minister to arrest or sue him.<\/span><\/p>\nADELABU: MY POLITICAL AMBITION DRIVEN BY GENUINE SERVICE, NOT BY SPIRITUAL MANIPULATION<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nADELABU HAS CONTESTED FOR THE OYO GOVERNORSHIP SEAT TWICE AND HE IS MAKING PLANS TO VIE FOR THE POSITION AGAIN IN 2027<\/span><\/p>\nIn the petition to the DSS, Adelabu said he rejected Ayodele\u2019s requests because he believes his ambition is driven by genuine service and not by spiritual manipulation or fetish practices.<\/span><\/p>\nThe minister asked the DSS to investigate Ayodele and compel him to retract his \u201cfalse prophecies\u201d and apologise.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI write to formally draw the attention of the Department of State Services (DSS) to the extortive, deceitful, and inciting activities of one self-acclaimed pastor known as Primate Elijah Ayodele, of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, whose actions have become not only personally distressing to the Honourable Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, but also capable of disturbing public peace and undermining the integrity of the political process in Oyo State,\u201d the petition reads.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSince his tenure as the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and particularly in the period leading up to his current aspiration to serve as the Governor of Oyo State, this individual had persistently approached him with unsolicited offers of \u201cspiritual intercession\u201d purportedly to guarantee electoral success.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cUnder this guise, he had on several occasions demanded huge sums of money and expensive spiritual items, cumulatively amounting to over N150 million (one hundred and fifty million naira), as purported prerequisites for divine favour. The minister had consistently declined his requests, believing that his political ambition is driven by genuine service to the people and not by any spiritual manipulation or fetish practice.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cFollowing the Honourable Minister\u2019s refusal to accede to his extortionate demands, Primate Ayodele has embarked on a campaign of malicious and false prophecies targeted at discrediting him publicly. He has gone as far as declaring through various media channels that \u2018God told him he will not win the election\u2019 and has recently made more provocative and inciting statements suggesting that he would fail because of his association with the \u2018\u00c8mi L\u00f2kan\u2019 slogan (\u201cIt\u2019s my turn\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAs a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he had previously chosen to ignore his antics to avoid unnecessary public confrontation with a religious figure. However, Primate Ayodele\u2019s continued propagation of these false prophecies, which are evidently retaliatory and malicious in nature, now pose a threat not only to the minister\u2019s reputation but also to public order and confidence in the democratic process.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI therefore urge the Department of State Services to kindly investigate the activities of the said Pastor Ayodele for extortion, blackmail, and deliberate dissemination of false and inciting information; compel him to retract his false prophecies and issue a formal written apology; and bring him under the force of the law, in accordance with relevant provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and Criminal Code, to deter similar fraudulent religious practices in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe minister also petitioned the Oyo state commissioner of police over the cleric\u2019s \u201cextortive and inciting activities\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\nPRIMATE AYODELE: I DIDN\u2019T ATTEMPT TO EXTORT ADELABU<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nIn a phone conversation with TheCable, Ayodele said Adelabu was the one who approached him first. He said Adelabu sent emissaries to him because he was desperate to become Oyo governor.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI didn\u2019t blackmail him. We didn\u2019t have any transaction. Again, no money was exchanged between us,\u201d the cleric said.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI discussed some terms with him, which he didn\u2019t agree with. I didn\u2019t make any attempt to extort him. I can sell my services for any amount. I can value it at N1 billion as much as I provide the value he wants. It\u2019s nobody\u2019s business. Why did you come to me in the first place if you didn\u2019t believe in me? What are you doing with someone you claim is dishing out fake prophesies? He should say anything he likes.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m big. I\u2019m not poor. I take care of vulnerable people. I\u2019m blessed in the Lord.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bayo Adelabu, minister of power, has accused Primate Elijah Ayodele, founder and head of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Oke Afa, Lagos, of blackmail and attempting to extort N150 million from him for \u201cspiritual intercession\u201d to make him governor of Oyo state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11260,245,5228,11261,11262,5116],"class_list":["post-25576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bayo-adelabu","tag-dss","tag-petitions","tag-primate-ayodele","tag-spiritual-intercession","tag-thecable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25576"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25581,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25576\/revisions\/25581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}