Founder of the Free Nation movement, Daddy Freeze has reacted to comment by the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman, that pastors have the power to shut down bloggers who wrote something negative about them.
According to Suleman, during a sermon, “A blogger posted something about my father in the lord about 3 days ago and I sent him a message saying I am giving him six hours to take it down or he would not like me. You know these bloggers, it wouldn’t take anything to close them. How many people do we need to report a page? The church has got the numbers to mess up bloggers. I will only direct the Choristers a page to report and they will shut it down.
“You want drama, we will give you. That we are keeping quiet doesn’t mean bloggers should try nonsense, we can shut you down. What does it take to shut down an Instagram page? 100 to 200 reports and they will shut it down. If it comes up under three months, we report it again. Since you face the church, we face you. But we are giving you means of livelihood, don’t abuse it.”
Reacting to this, Freeze said he did not subscribe that any pastor or group of people could threaten to shut down bloggers.
“I do not subscribe to the notion that any pastor or group of individuals can threaten to stifle the voice of their opposition, I will never stand with that. However, I implore bloggers to also go the extra mile to verify the information they post, so as not to attract unnecessary controversy. This is what we do in the FreeNation in Christ.
“Furthermore, I will also not support attacks aimed at individual pastors instead of doctrinal differences. Now, following my recent series of encounters with some of these so called social media ‘reformers’, a vast number of whom are much worse than the pastors they condemn, I arrived at the realization that they do not know God, or have any intention of propagating his word, instead they are simply riding on this reformation platform for personal gratification and to grow their otherwise anorexic social media following.
“This in my opinion, if left unaddressed, will result in the consummate conflagration of our faith, which is in direct conflict with our desired goal, that is to take the word of Yahushua, the true son of Yahweh, to the world. So via this medium, I hereby declare that the FreeNation in Christ is a stand alone body of true worshippers, with no affiliation to any individual or group of reformers,” Freeze said.
A poem about migration titled The City Rat has drawn condemnation in Austria after it compared humans to rodents.
Christian Schilcher of the governing coalition far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) wrote the poem, which tells migrants to integrate or “quickly hurry away”.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has demanded his coalition partner distance itself from the “abominable” poem.
It was published in an FPÖ newspaper in Braunau am Inn, birthplace of Nazi Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler.
Mr Kurz told the Austrian Press Agency the poem was “disgusting, inhuman and deeply racist” and had no place in Austria.
“Just as we live down here, so must other rats,” the poem states, telling them to “share with us the way of life, or quickly hurry away” and saying that if you mix different cultures, “it’s as if you destroy them”.
Mr Schilcher – the vice-mayor of Braunau am Inn – said he did not mean to “insult or hurt anyone” with his poem.
He apologised for ignoring the “historically burdened” comparison between rats and humans, saying the poem aimed to describe changes “which myself and others quite rightly criticise” from a rat’s perspective.
Pamela Rendi-Wagner, head of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), said such comparisons were “customary in Nazi propaganda”.
But Vice-Chancellor and FPÖ head Heinz-Christian Strache wrote in a Facebook post that the “current incitement and campaign” against his party shows their competitors are “especially nervous” ahead of European Parliament elections in May.
The FPÖ has been in coalition with Mr Kurz’s conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) since 2017 and is among just a few far-right parties to have won power in the EU.
Scrutiny fell on rifts in Sri Lanka’s leadership on Monday after it emerged that authorities were warned about the group accused in Sunday’s bombings.
Attacks on churches and hotels killed 290 people and wounded nearly 500.
Security agencies had been watching the National Thowheed Jamath jihadist group, reports said, and had notified police about a possible attack.
But the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the cabinet were not informed, ministers said.
A ‘colossal intelligence failure’
The prime minister was not privy to security briefings following a rift last year with President Maithripala Sirisena, cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told a press conference.
Mr Sirisena sacked Mr Wickremesinghe and his cabinet in October and tried to install another prime minister, prompting a full-blown constitutional crisis.
He was forced to reinstate Mr Wickremesinghe under pressure from the nation’s supreme court, but apparently kept the prime minister from security briefings.
Mr Senaratne said intelligence agencies had begun issuing warnings about the group on 4 April, after which the defence ministry sent a detailed warning to the chief of police; and on 11 April a memo was sent to the heads of several security divisions.
He said information passed to police included a warning from a foreign intelligence agency about possible attacks by the group, as well as names of members.
US media quote Sri Lankan officials as saying both Indian and US intelligence had warned the country about a threat in early April.
It was not clear on Monday whether Mr Sirisena had been made aware of the warnings. “Our understanding is that it was correctly circulated among security and police,” Shiral Lakthilaka, a senior adviser to Mr Sirisena, told the BBC.
He said that the president had appointed a special committee led by a supreme court judge to investigate what had happened.
Rauff Hakeem, the minister for town planning, called the attacks a “colossal failure of intelligence”.
“It is shameful for all of us. We are all ashamed of this,” he said.
Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted: “Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored.”
What steps has the government taken?
Sri Lankan authorities declared a state of emergency which came into effect at midnight (18:30 GMT) on Monday.
The declaration gives police and the military sweeping powers to detain and interrogate suspects without court orders – powers that were last used during the nation’s civil war.
A curfew also came into effect at 20:00, leaving armed security forces patrolling largely deserted streets in Colombo on Monday night.
The government blocked access to Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram after the blasts.
Police arrested 24 suspects in a series of raids just hours after the attacks, and later said 87 bomb detonators had been found at the Bastian Mawatha private bus station in Petta.
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On Monday, another blast rocked a street in the capital, Colombo, when a bomb went off while police attempted to defuse it, although no-one was hurt.
How did the attacks unfold?
The first reports of explosions came at about 08:45 local time on Sunday with six blasts reported within a small space of time.
Three churches in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo’s Kochchikade district were targeted during Easter services. Blasts also rocked the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the country’s capital.
Police did not release a breakdown of how many people were killed and wounded at each location.
All the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers, officials said.
Police then carried out raids on two addresses and there were explosions at both.
One was in Dehiwala, southern Colombo, and the other was near the Colombo district of Dematagoda, where three officers were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a device.
An improvised explosive device – a 6ft-long [1.8m] plastic pipe packed with explosives – was also found and defused near the airport in Colombo.
What do we know about the attackers?
National Thowheed Jamath has been named by a government spokesman as the main suspect.
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The group has no history of large-scale attacks but came to prominence last year when it was blamed for damaging Buddhist statues.
Who were the victims?
Most of those who died were Sri Lankan nationals, including scores of Christians attending Easter Sunday church services.
The ministry of foreign affairs said it had identified 31 foreign nationals among the dead, with 14 unaccounted for. The death toll included at least eight British citizens and at least eight citizens of India.
British lawyer Anita Nicholson died alongside her two children, Alex, 14, and Annabel, 11, when a suicide bomber detonated a device in the breakfast queue at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo.
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Her husband, Ben Nicholson, survived and praised his “wonderful, perfect wife” and “amazing, intelligent” children.
Chelsea moved above Arsenal into fourth position in the Premier League as they were held by Burnley in a thrilling game at Stamford Bridge.
With rivals Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United all losing over the weekend, Chelsea will be frustrated that they could not take full advantage – a win would have lifted them into third, two points ahead of Spurs.
All the goals were scored in the opening 24 minutes with Jeff Hendrick giving Burnley an eighth-minute lead before N’Golo Kante equalised after wonderful skill by Eden Hazard.
Gonzalo Higuain put Chelsea in front six minutes and 14 seconds after Burnley’s opener.
However, the visitors were level when Ashley Barnes scored from close range, his 11th league goal of the season.
On a frustrating night for Maurizio Sarri’s side, Callum Hudson-Odoi ruptured his Achilles tendon and Kante went off with a rib injury, while the Chelsea boss was sent to the stands towards the end.
Burnley are now almost certainly safe from relegation with three games to go, holding a nine-point advantage over 18th-placed Cardiff and with a goal difference 17 better than the Welsh side.
Chelsea frustrations boil over after missed opportunity
Chelsea started the weekend in fifth place but, despite failing to win for the second successive league game, end it in fourth, with Arsenal dropping out of the Champions League spots.
However, this was a missed opportunity for the Blues, who have played one more game than the teams around them.
Frustrations boiled over towards the end with David Luiz and Barnes involved in an altercation on the pitch, Sarri ordered away from the dugout and a scuffle taking place near the tunnel entrance at the final whistle.
Chelsea were unhappy with what they perceived to be time-wasting tactics by the visitors yet that failed to disguise the hosts’ poor defending, Burnley scoring from their only two shots on target in the first half.
Race for the Premier League top four
Arsenal
Chelsea
Man Utd
Tottenham
24 April Wolves (A)
24 April Man City (H)
23 April Brighton (H)
29 April Leicester (A)
28 April Man Utd (A)
28 April Chelsea (H)
27 April West Ham (H)
4 May Brighton (H)
4 May Watford (H)
5 May Huddersfield (A)
6 May Bournemouth (A)
12 May Burnley (A)
12 May Leicester (A)
12 May Cardiff (H)
12 May Everton (H)
Midfielder Hendrick was left unmarked when he produced a delightful curling finish to put Burnley ahead with his third league goal of the season.
In a remarkable passage of play, Chelsea quickly levelled when Hazard got the better of Matthew Lowton before pulling it back for Kante to smash home from 12 yards out.
Chelsea were ahead through Higuain’s beautiful first-time finish after Cesar Azpilicueta’s backheel into his path.
Burnley were back level when Chelsea failed to deal with a free-kick, Barnes pouncing inside the six-yard area after a flick by Chris Wood.
Chelsea have now conceded seven times in the past three games, a big concern for Sarri as his side also look to seal a Europa League final spot.
Burnley show spirit to all but secure safety
After losing 5-1 at home to Everton on 26 December, Burnley were third bottom in the table, three points from safety following a sixth defeat in seven games.
Fast forward 16 games and eight wins, the Clarets are as good as safe with three matches to spare after a spirited performance against Chelsea left Cardiff requiring an extraordinary set of results to overhaul Burnley.
Having won 3-2 at Chelsea on the opening day of last season, they swept into the lead through Hendrick’s fine finish before showing their character to respond after falling 2-1 behind.
Tom Heaton’s yellow card in the 32nd minute was the earliest for time-wasting by a goalkeeper in a Premier League match for five years.
Yet this was far from a conservative performance by the visitors, Burnley producing six shots in total – half on target – and Sean Dyche can now start planning for a fourth successive season in the Premier League.
Man of the match – Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Match stats – Hazard beats three-year assists haul
Chelsea have only lost one of their 21 Premier League matches played on a Monday at Stamford Bridge (W15 D5) – a 3-2 defeat by Manchester United on Boxing Day in 1994 under Glenn Hoddle.
Since their 3-2 victory against Chelsea in this fixture last season, Burnley have failed to win any of their past 11 Premier League away games versus ‘big six’ opposition (D5 L6).
Chelsea conceded two goals from set-pieces (excluding penalties) in a single Premier League game at Stamford Bridge for the first time since May 2011 v Newcastle.
Jeff Hendrick’s strike for Burnley’s opener was the 1,000th goal Chelsea have conceded in the Premier League – the ninth club to do so.
Chelsea’s Eden Hazard has provided 13 assists in the Premier League in 2018-19, the most in the competition this season and one more than he registered in his previous three seasons combined (12).
Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante has scored four goals in 34 Premier League games this season, one more than he netted in his previous three campaigns combined (three goals in 106 appearances).
Ashley Barnes has scored 11 Premier League goals this season, the joint-most by a Burnley player in a single campaign along with Danny Ings in 2014-15.
Chelsea’s Gonzalo Higuaín has scored 10 or more league goals in each of his past 11 seasons (four for Chelsea, six for AC Milan in 2018-19).
What’s next?
Chelsea will now start preparing for Sunday’s match at sixth-placed Manchester United (16:30 BST) – a game which will a long way to deciding who finishes in the top four. Burnley also have a big match on the same day – at home to title-chasing Manchester City (14:05).
Three-time champion Mark Selby survives a scare to beat world number 67 Zhao Xintong 10-7 and reach the second round of the World Snooker Championship at The Crucible, Sheffield.
The panel set up to probe the suspended Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo has recommended his dismissal on grounds that he awarded contracts worth N33 million to his company.
The administrative panel of inquiry into allegations of violations of public service rules, financial regulations and other extant rules and regulations, which was set up by the Ministry of Finance, also said Gwarzo admitted to the allegations.
The panel had been directed to investigate claims that Gwarzo was a director in Medusa Limited and Outbound Investment Limited while still serving as SEC DG and also used his influence to award contracts to those companies.
According to the panel’s report, he was a majority shareholder in Medusa Limited with a shareholding of N1.2 million.
“His purported letter of resignation dates 19th December 2012 was not part of CAC’s records as at the date of the inquiry.
“It was equally discovered from the account opening mandate obtained from GTBank that Gwarzo was at the date of the inquiry signatory to account No 322324264/1/110 maintained by the company with the bank.”
He was also reported to have signed letters as company director to the bank requesting for a change of account number and a credit card for the company.
Both letters were dated July 24, 2015, and August 16, 2016 respectively.
“When Gwarzo was confronted with the above letters, he admitted to have authored and signed them, but claimed that it was a regrettable action” the report stated.
Outbound Investments Limited, which benefitted from SEC contacts worth N33,736,596, Gwarzo claimed the company belongs to his wife’s family and stated that he was only representing his wife on the board.
Based on the findings, the panel said Gwarzo had breached PSR 030424 and PSR 030402 which prohibits public officers from holding shares in both public and private companies operating in Nigeria or abroad except that they must not be directors in public companies and may only be directors in public companies if nominated by government.
According to The Cable, the panel also recommended that he be referred to the ICPC for further investigation of the allegation of using his position as DG to influence the award of contracts.
