The embattled Nigerian evangelist, Yinka Yusuf, has decided to look elsewhere for his “1 Million Crusade” after the Akwa Ibom State Government cancelled an approval granted to him and refused to back down despite his apology.
Recall that the Akwa Ibom State Government, through its agency that manages public facilities, wrote a letter to Mr Yusuf, informing him that the approval to use a government hall, Ibom Hall, for the crusade had been withdrawn due to “security reasons” and the “prevailing security situation in the State”.
The government letter, dated January 27, was signed by Patrick Udomfang, the CEO of the Akwa Ibom Property and Investments Company Limited. The letter went viral on Facebook.
Mr Yusuf had paid the Akwa Ibom State Government for the use of the hall for his crusade, scheduled for February 9 at the Ibom Hall grounds.
The cleric alleged that the Akwa Ibom chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) instigated the state government against him because the two religious blocs had invited a Kenyan prophet to Uyo.
He said the programme by the Kenyan prophet was slated to take place a week before his own crusade, but that CAN and PFN wanted him to postpone his by a week.
He argued that he had already spent millions of naira on publicity and logistics, and that international guests had booked flights to Uyo, making any last-minute shift costly and disruptive.
In a video on X, the evangelist accused CAN and PFN in Akwa Ibom of being behind the plot to scuttle his crusade because of the two associations’ invitation to the Kenyan prophet.
In a Facebook post on Friday morning, the evangelist announced that his ministry had decided to discontinue the plans for the Uyo crusade.
“We have come to the end of the road for Uyo,” Mr Yusuf wrote. “The government, PFN, and CAN have insisted that I must reschedule our crusade to accommodate the Kenya government, PFN, and CAN crusade, moving it forward by a week.
“We have decided to act according to the Word of God and move to the next city.”
He said his team was withdrawing trucks and trailers already mobilised for the programme back to Lagos, adding that he had spent over N43 million on the botched crusade.
“We leave everything to God, from whom nothing is hidden. May the Lord bless the Governor, PFN, and CAN. We wish them a successful programme. May the Lord of the harvest, who sent us to Uyo, send other evangelists to accomplish what we couldn’t do in the city,” he said.
“We apologise to the five thousand evangelists we invited to Uyo from around the world; many have already purchased their tickets from America, the UK, South Africa, Australia, Namibia, etc.”
The announcement came hours after a video clip circulating on social media showed the evangelist making remarks, considered derogatory, about Akwa Ibom, which has a predominantly Christian population.
“The problem is the ancestral demon that controls Calabar and Uyo. Think of Okon, you are thinking about a gateman. Think about Ekaette, you are thinking about a cook,” he said in the video.
“It has made them believe that they are slaves. If you go there, you will see pride that is not in America. The most proud people in this world are from Akwa Ibom. Proud for nothing,” he said.
The comments sparked widespread outrage on social media.
Reacting to the backlash, Mr Yusuf, in another video posted on his Facebook page, dismissed the clip as propaganda by people opposed to the crusade.
He said the video was taken out of context and was from a sermon he preached two years earlier on what he described as “pulling down spirit” in the state.
