The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria on February 10 elected officers to run for another four years at the ongoing fellowship’s biannual conference in Abuja.
The incumbent president of fellowship Bishop Wale Oke was re-elected to continue for another four years but his deputy, Archbishop John Praise Daniel did not make it back to the executive.
According to a top source in the PFN, Archbishop Praise Daniel played a strange game that backfired.
The source said he contested against the incumbent Bishop of the fellowship for the position of the president: a move many see as an attempt to embarrass Bishop Oke.
‘ideally, he had no business contesting against Bishop Oke because over the years the presidents of the PFN always had the grace of another term if they wished.
‘But Archbishop Praise Daniel decided to test his popularity. That is why he contested. Unfortunately for him, he lost. Bishop Oke had 15 votes while he had 12.’
The National Advisory Council consisting of past presidents of the fellowship and some fathers of faith were the ones who voted in the election.
The source said when Praise Daniel lost in his bid to become the president of the fellowship he decided to contest again for the Deputy National President, the position he held before
contesting against Bishop Oke. ‘He also lost. Incidentally with the same margin to which he lost against Bishop Oke.
Another pastor, the former General Secretary of the Fellowship, Cosmos Ilechukwu defeated him in the election. At the end, he lost out completely. He is no longer in the executive of the national body of the PFN’ said the source.
The case of Archbishop Praise Daniel who led some bishops and pastors to support President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria is like that of the proverbial man who pursues two rats at a time. The end result is often not palatable.
Archbishop John Praise Daniel, an indigene of Kaduna is the presiding Bishop of the Dominion Chapel International Church, with branches in the UK and most parts of Nigeria and its headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria. He is the president of the Dominion Bible Faith Institute (DOBFI), the training arm of the ministry.
As it is, no northerner is in the national executive of the PFN. Some in the North are not comfortable with this development according to a leading PFN official.
The present central working committee of the PFN also known as the National Executive are Bishop Wale Oke NATIONAL PRESIDENT(reelected)
Rev. Cosmas Ilechukwu DEPUTY NATIONAL PRESIDENT( former National secretary) Bishop David Bakare NATIONAL SECRETARY(former National deputy secretary) and Rev..Sam Aboyeji NATIONAL TREASURER(reelected)
Others offices of the fellowship are expected to be filled before the end of the conference..
