Bakare: No one paid me for my comment on Tinubu — I’m not for sale

Tunde Bakare, serving overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly (LRA), says he was not paid to sing the praises of Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos state.

Bakare, a known critic of Tinubu, sparked off controversy last week when he likened him (Tinubu) to Jephthah in the Bible who delivered his people despite the circumstances of his birth.

The cleric had said Tinubu fought and won many battles for the Yoruba, adding that God does not need anyone’s permission to put the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) leader in His hall of fame.

Addressing his congregation on Sunday in a sermon titled ‘There is None Holy as the Lord’, Bakare told his critics that no one is rich enough to buy him because he has already been bought “by the Blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary”.

He said his message on Tinubu was taken out of context, adding that “the bathwater and the baby were both thrown out” by those he described as “undertakers”.

He challenged those who claimed he was paid by alleged power brokers to prove it if they have any evidence.

“One would have thought that the whole message of over an hour would be listened to so that the context of the clip that went viral would be listened to before judgment is passed by those who considered us to have taken a 360-turnaround compared to the thoughts we had taken previously about the man many love to hate and many hate to love,” Bakare said.

“Instead, the bathwater and the baby were both thrown out by some self-appointed undertakers who think the way forward in our dilemma as a nation is to uproot the tares and separate them from the wheat long before the harvest time ordained by God.

“You think somebody will pay me for what I am doing? No one is rich enough to do it. No one in this country or elsewhere is rich enough. And I am not for sale because I have been bought. I was bought by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of calvary and no other price can match that. And if you know of anyone who has given me money at any time to do what I am doing, expose it.”