Pastor Ezekiel Odero of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church has threatened to move to court after discovering that his church file was missing from the Office of the Registrar of Societies.
Through his lawyers Cliff Ombeta and Danstan Omari, the man of cloth claims that the move comes as a well-plotted scheme by the government to frustrate his efforts and deregister his church.
Ezekiel says that he had reported to the registrar of societies to file returns but was informed that his file was nowhere to be seen.
“The registrar of societies has come up and wants to deregister the church. One of the conditions that they gave us is that we must be able to file returns," Ombeta stated.
The firebrand lawyer pointed out that Ezekiel's woes continued to escalate after he was released from custody and his bank accounts were unfrozen and the church re-opened. He says that the Registrar of Societies has continuously threatened to close Ezekiel's church.
“We expected that a document that is with the Registrar must be available, at least if not the physical file, then the record must be there online. But then, we are being told the file is neither with the Attorney General nor the registrar’s office, we are not sure exactly where this file is," he said.
“We are fighting people who can be able to make files disappear, but it’s about time somebody takes really strong steps against them, trust me we will be suing. We don’t know who we are fighting, but we shall continue fighting,” he added.
Pastor Ezekiel's following
Omari, on the other hand, claimed that Ezekiel was facing frustration from the government because he commands a huge following.
According to the lawyer, the man of the cloth who had registered his church in 2012 operated his church smoothly without problems until April this year when the State started going after him.
“When he (Ezekiel) held prayers last year in Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi attracting tens of thousands of worshipers, I think that is where people began to have envy and hatred and started coming after Pastor Ezekiel. Since then he has been pushed a lot," Omari said.
He noted that the State continuously frustrated the pastor's ambition and drive to 'spread' the word of God through unlawful closures and accusations that he(Ezekiel) had not filed returns since the church's inception.
“When we thought all these were over, the registrar of societies appeared before parliament and said that the church had failed to file its returns since 2012 and that they had issued a 30-day notice or the church be closed," he said.
While affirming that they will not be cowed by the government's 'ill-intention' the lawyers stated that the pastor will move to the High Court on Monday, May 29, 2023.
