RCCG suspends influential Lagos parish priest, Iluyomade

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The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has suspended the Senior Pastor of the church’s City of David Parish and also the head of the Apapa family of the RCCG, Pastor Idowu Iluyomade.

Church sources say that his suspension was communicated to him by letter over the weekend.

It was also announced that he has since been replaced by Pastor Charles Kpandei of the RCCG Resurrection Parish in Region 11 of the church.

A church member, who also reported that Kpandei resumed his ministry in the city of David on Sunday, June 2, said the new pastor, however, received a cool welcome.

“It was no surprise because the parishioners in David town were expecting Pastor Kpandei. Some senior RCCG officials had to meet with some top people in the parish and confide in them that PID, as he was fondly called, had to be removed from the parish.

“The reason for this was to gain the trust of these top people because Rev. Iluyomade has had great influence in the community for years,” the source explained.

It was also revealed that Iluyomade was suspended for three months by the church’s governing body to give him an opportunity to appear before a panel set up by the RCCG to investigate some of the allegations made against him and the church.

Observers believe that the decision to suspend Iluyomade may also have something to do with the public outcry against the lavish birthday party organised to mark his wife’s 60th birthday shortly after the death of a community member and Group CEO of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, who many believed had contributed immensely to the growth of the community.

LEADERSHIP recalls that some Internet users had accused the Iluyomades of their insensitivity, while others felt that their lives must go on after Wigwe’s death.