Governor Godswill Akpabio has called on Nigerians to shun crimes but to love one another as practised by the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, through charity and empowerment programmes.

The governor made the call during the 8th anniversary of the Eagle Flight Micro Finance Bank Limited organised by Pastor Oritsejafor’s Word of Life Bible Church in Warri, Delta State.

“I appreciate this ministry for empowering the lives of Nigerians,” Akpabio stated, adding: “I must congratulate Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and wife, Helen, for touching lives, and I pray that God would give them the strength to continue in impacting more lives. This ceremony today is pleasing to the eyes and I know that it is accepted in heaven. This for me is a turning point in the lives of Nigerians; and I pray that through this empowerment programme, more lives and families would be touched and blessed, and kidnapping, armed robbery would come to an end.”

Continuing, the governor said: “So, you must shun criminality, so that every life you are touching would arrive in a better bank which is in heaven. For what you put in life is what you withdraw. So, for the parents present here today, if you do good to others or do charity to others, you are saving goodness to your children and also doing charity to your children which your children would later reap because that’s life.”

Citing his own personal experience, Akpabio said: “I must disclose today that what I am today is because of the efforts of my late mother who believed in helping others and throughout my life, wherever I went to, God opened doors for me. And as my name implies ‘GODSWILL’, I have absolute confidence in God because it is through the will of God, I can succeed.

“It is a worthy thing to be in communion with one another, because this is Christmas and the Lord enjoins us to love one another, which was why He sent His only son to be born to salvage mankind. I want to assure you all that with the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, all our troubles have been wiped away and I also want to let you know that once you have God, you have everything, which I must encourage you today to see the need to hold unto God at all times.”

For those who had not won anything for the day, Governor Akpabio told them that they are all leaving the place with God’s blessings and stressed that for the fact that they have decided to honour the man of God and his wife at the event entails that their lives would never be the same again.

Also speaking during the event, host Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, thanked the church and Pastor Oritsejafor for setting up the empowerment programme for the people to assist government in reducing poverty, criminality and to ensure peace in the society. He called on youths not to indulge in crimes while thanking Governor Akpabio for his support for the programme.

During the presentation of car gifts to the 12 winners at the raffle draw, Governor Akpabio who presented cars to the six out of the 12 winners, donated N250,000 to each of them, explaining that the winners were chosen through free and fair competition. He also supported the programme with N10 million.

Governor Uduaghan who also presented cars to the remaining six winners said that the competition has helped the less privileged and donated N250,000 each to the winners. He, in addition, supported the empowerment programme with N15 million, stressing that God has used Pastor Oritsejafor to aid humanity and praying that he and his wife would continue in their good works.

Earlier, Pastor Oritsejafor had thanked the Governors Akpabio and Uduaghan for their support for the programme and the people for coming out en masse to the event.

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