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Churches Protest After Council Officials Demand Fumigation Fees And Certificates
By Emmanuel Awosika
Some churches in Oshodi-Isolo local council have cried out following demands by council officials to pay for fumigation fees and certificates.
You will recall that the Lagos State Government had re-opened churches earlier this month and demanded that public spaces including places of worship be fumigated.
Reporters, however, discovered that council officials were demanding sums in the region of 15,000 naira from churches for “fumigation fees and certificates”.
The head of one of the affected churches, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he had informed the officers that the church had been fumigated when they approached him.
The officers had demanded to know if those who had fumigated had gave then a “certificate of fumigation”. The church owner had answered in the negative, after which the officials indicated they were coming back for an inspection and would demand the certificate.
“We told them it’s not part of the listed items by the Lagos State Government. But they insisted that it’s a requirement for them.
“We asked how much it would cost and they said N15,000. We were surprised and told them that we did not have any money and that we had given a lot of palliatives to the community.
“After some haggling, they said we should pay N10,000, which we said we could not afford. A community leader told them not to come to our church yesterday (Sunday), and we would sort it out this week,” he narrated.
However, not all churches in the area faced the same treatment. Pastor Barnabas Otoihbi, General Overseer of Temple Rebuilders Ministry, said his church was did not experience any fumigation-related extortion from the council officials.
According to him, the issue of fumigating churches had been settled at a meeting between religious leaders and the council in June. There, he said, they had been told the churches would cover half the cost of fumigation, while the state government would cover the other half.
“We were told that they would do inspection to ensure everyone complied with the rules. There was no mention of fumigation certificates,” he added.
Vice Chairman of Oshodi-Isolo local council, Daisi Oso, said that the council was not charging anyone for fumigation or certificates.
“It is not in our purview to check any church. It is the Lagos State Government that is doing it and there is an agency in charge of that. As a local government, we don’t know about it,” he explained.
Oso, however, mentioned the existence of an environmental unit in the council saddled with the responsibility of fumigating public places, including mosques and churches.
