President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Samson Ayokunle Monday joined Kogi state Governor Yahaya Bello and royal fathers as they conducted the groundbreaking of the first Government House Chapel in Lokoja.
The event broke the 28-year jinx of the non-existence of Christian worship centre within the Government House premises, with the CAN leader praising the governor for maintaining ethnic and religious unity in the confluence
Describing Bello as a pacesetter and trailblazer for doing what other past administrations could not achieve, the CAN leader commended the governor for ensuring ethnic and religious unity in the state.
He said any country that ensures fair play, mutual respect and justice would enjoy tranquillity, saying history would remember the governor for being a unifier.
The CAN boss, however, charged Governor Bello to further increase effort at chasing out criminal elements within the state, stating that Kogi was not just a confluence but also a linking state.
He said these criminal elements under whatever guise were the enemies of the people and the nation and should be treated as such.
Speaking at the occasion, Governor Bello said although building a chapel was a small project for a state government but that he was excited at its significance rather than its size or cost.
Besides being a house of worship for Christian faithful, it would symbolise access, welcome and inclusion which his government had worked to guarantee all citizens in public institutions within the state.
Bello further said the project was a fulfilment of a campaign promise he made in 2015 when he noticed the absence of a chapel in Lugard House, saying adherents of both Islam and Christianity had always lived peacefully in the state since the pre-colonial time.
The governor said it had had remained his wish and philosophy of governance to affirm and forge all the state’s diversities into one united people and to do so effectively.
He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the latest bailout request of N30.8billion for the state, even as he lauded the Attah of Igala HRM Michael Ameh Oboni for leading the traditional leaders to the president to make a stronger case for the bailout.
