The Pentecostal Fellowship of Sierra Leone and the Body of Christ have strongly condemned the unprovoked attacks on the Glory Mission Church in Kambia.
This was revealed during a press briefing on Friday, July 22, 2022, at the Flaming Bible Church, Syke Street in Freetown.
PFSL President Bishop Akintayo Sam-Jolly and Vice President Apostle Augustine S. Kamara said in a joint statement that, PFSL received report on the night of Sunday, July 17, 2022, that one of its Pentecostal churches in Kambia, The Glory Mission, was attacked by people claiming to be Muslims while a joint youth quiz competition was in progress.
The released stated that the attackers pelted the building with stones and destroyed furniture.
They said that some of the pastors rushed down to the local police station and asked for immediate police intervention to salvage what was left and avoid further deterioration of the situation.
The presence of a high government officials, followed by robust response of the Office of National Security (ONS), military personnel, and the police, was lifesaving, according to the statement. Some steps have also been taken to address the situation.
PFSL has brought this to the attention of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police, the General Secretary of the Interreligious Council of Sierra Leone, and other relevant authorities. Locally, the office of the ONS, the Police, the Commanding Officer of the 11th Battalion of the RSLAF are among those who went to the scene.
“A fact-finding team comprising members of the Fellowship from four of our chapters were dispatched to Kambia on Tuesday 19th July 2022 in order to properly acquaint themselves with the unfortunate incident,” EFSL said in the statement.
A second visit was made on Thursday, July 21, 2022 with both visits being led by the Public Relations Officer of the Fellowship, Apostle Siaka Kamara.
This incidence is the second report from Kambia within recent months with the first being on April 13, 2022, where glass windows were broken in another unprovoked attack on the Door Christian Fellowship.
No action was taken by the authorities against the perpetrators in the first attack except that the victimized brethren were asked to forgive the assailants.
No repairs were done for the damage caused.
Accord to EFSL, there has been a couple of other such attacks within the city of Freetown also. This includes an attack on The Word International Church on Nimbana Street in which there was damage done to their facilities with no compensation given.
That attack, (which was the second on that church), was reported to the Central Police Station and the church was rather advised to manage the situation, according to the statement.
There is also a matter of a Pastor being stopped to turn the sod on his own land by Muslims from a nearby mosque. This also has been reported to the Police and subsequently to the Inter-religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL) since May, and at this point no action has been taken to address the given situation.
“In the earlier attack by the same mosque on the same church (about seven years ago), the youths threatened to burn down the church, frightened the young people and spoilt their program. We demand that such attacks must come to an end now.”
Earlier on in the year, EFSL said reports were also made to the Sierra Leone Police and other relevant authorities regarding the interference of secret societies on church services and Christian activities in the provinces.
In all these multiple incidences, there have never been any action taken to give Christians their constitutional freedom of worship, according to EFSL president.
“We will not tolerate these acts of Islamic activists and extremists in any shape or form. We will deal with it with all the level of resistance it deserves. Appropriate and lawful steps would be taken as we do meaningful engagement to curb this and forestall all such plans to cause religious unrest in our nation. Our constitutional religious freedom and human rights must not be violated,” says Bishop Akintayo Sam-Jolly, President of PFSL.
By Sallieu S. Kanu