Pastor's programme suddenly cut off during broadcast by Channels TV

Founder of Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare, had his one-hour paid programme on Channels Television, Moment of Truth yanked off air during a broadcast.

According to Premium Times, Channels TV a Lagos-based independent 24-hour news station claimed they terminated a broadcast by pastor Bakare because the tone of his message was critical of the Nigerian government.

Bakare's Moment of Truth runs on the station between 5-6p.m. every Sunday, through which pastor's messages which he preaches in Latter Rain Assembly are being televised.

It as gathered that 45 minutes into the programme on Sunday, Channels TV terminated the programme just as Pastor Bakare was making comments considered critical of the Nigerian government.

“We had to hurriedly take the programme off air after he (Pastor Bakare) began spitting venom against the government and saying things we cannot defend,” an official of the station, who asked not to be named because he has no permission to speak on the matter, told Premium Times

The official did not say what those comments were, but he insisted they were serious enough that Channels could not afford to allow anyone to spread them through its station.

When contacted, the General Manager of the station, Kayode Akintemi, confirmed he received complaints over the pulling of Pastor Bakare’s broadcast.

He however said the station was looking into the matter.

Pastor Bakare told Premium Times he and his church had not been given any explanation for terminating the programme.

“The broadcast is not free,” Mr. Bakare said. “ It is paid for and those in charge will write them tomorrow to demand explanations.”

The pastor insisted Channels had no justification for pulling his broadcast.

“There was nothing I said in that broadcast that is subversive other than warning the nation that the forthcoming election is laced with disaster and that if we must plunge into it, we should be ready for the consequences,” he said.

In the broadcast entitled, “The Gathering Storm And Avoidable Shipwreck – How to Avoid Catastrophic Euroclydon”, Pastor Bakare accused the government of plunging the country into political and economic disaster and warned of an impending storm.

He spoke of the “fundamental flaw in the polity” and the gathering of the cloud ahead of a major storm.

Pastor Bakare who had always declared his loyalty for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, identified danger signs facing the country and the steps he said are necessary to avert crisis before, during and after the forthcoming elections.

Read full transcript here.