Senior Prophet Jeremiah Fufeyin of Christ MercyLand Ministry has refuted claims that his church is using the name of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to mislead Nigerians regarding its spiritual items.
In a statement released by the church’s media arm, MercyLand Television Deliverance Ministry, and signed by Sophia Iloyd, Fufeyin dismissed a recent online report by a national newspaper titled “NAFDAC Investigating Pastor Jeremiah’s Miracle Water, Soap – DG.” The statement emphasized that the publication was false and misleading.
According to the statement, Christ Mercy Land Deliverance Ministry is a law abiding Christian Church and recognize the extant laws of the land and even the NAFDAC Act in this regard, and as a Christian Association, “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.
The statement also asserted that the newspaper via online publication “in the course of their story also stated and alleged that NAFDAC wishes to alert the general public on the activities of the church and the church uses NAFDAC name to deceive unsuspecting public, we wish to state that at no point our Church has ever deceived or dishonestly deceive any members of the general public, all the church has done in the entirety of this issue is the church right to expression of religion through the use of spiritual items, the church has never even produce or sell to members of the public, consumable items in this regard.
“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.”
However, as part of putting the records straight as rebuttal of the online news publication, the statement pointed, “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.
Alleged Complainant forged receipts
“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.
The church clarified that despite reaching out to NAFDAC regarding the issues and allegations mentioned, there has been no official response from the agency. In a statement, the church emphasized that neither NAFDAC nor its representatives have provided any feedback or correspondence to the church or its legal team to date.