Pastor defends choice of Portable, Pasuma as performers at church event 

Controversial singer, Portable and Fuji maestro, Alabi Pasuma will be the headline artistes at a church musical concert organised by a Celestial Church of Christ in Lagos.

The national leadership of the Celestial church has, however, condemned the choice of the secular artistes performing at a church event. But that has not stopped the cleric Aderemi Dabiri, who invited them to cancel the invitation. 

Dabiri, in defence of his decision, said the reason why he invited Pasuma and Portable, was to gain new converts.

In a video where he was addressing a delegation of the church’s task force who visited his parish to have an audience with him on the controversial event, he said the choice of the two artistes was to attract deviants in the society to the church. 

According to him, that pattern of evangelism had worked for him over the years and also resulted in the growth of his church membership.

He said, “It is not our first time inviting guest artistes. We have been doing it without a problem and I can give you a series of instances. We cannot go where they sell palm wine or alcoholic drinks and ask them to accept Jesus Christ. If I don’t apply wisdom, they will hit a bottle on my head. That was why I thought of a way to bring them into the church.

“I also noticed that there are some notorious boys who cause trouble in the community, disturbing the authorities and engaging in cultism. I wondered how can we draw their attention so that they would have a change of heart. We have gone to places where they are and they ended up beating us. Most of the members of my church are new converts and it was through that pattern that I converted them.”

Dabiri, who criticised some gospel ministers for being disrespectful said he preferred to invite secular musicians.

“Some gospel ministers are rude. If you talk to some of them, they respond rudely, but the day I called Pasuma, he sounded respectful on the phone and also agreed with my stance,” he said.

Responding to the concerns raised by the task force team about the raging controversy caused by the development, Dabiri indicated that he had no plans to cancel the invitation.

However, he explained that he would reduce the excesses of the artistes at the event, especially Portable.

He said, “We will tell Portable not to dye his hair and he should not sing vulgar songs but to sing gospel music. We will also caution him not to dress inappropriately or climb the speakers.

“We will also warn him not to allow his boys to smoke here. We have invited close to 30 military personnel to man the event.”

The cleric also appealed to the Celestial Church worldwide to support his vision, as he would use his style of evangelism to make the church proud.