Chinelo Obogo, Lagos
Journalist and human rights lawyer Ayo Opadokun has made an appeal to well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of Ikate Baptist Church in providing a safe space where children and teenagers can be educated.
Speaking at a breakfast luncheon organised by Ikate Baptist Church, Surulere, Opadokun, who heads the church expansion project committee, said the church is very committed to raising godly children but that it lacks the infrastructure to ensure that the kids can learn in a conducive environment.
He said the church plays a very important role in the development of society by ensuring that their children are inculcated with the right teaching and given the right upbringing that will help them become responsible adults. He explained that it is part of the reason why Ikate Baptist Church is making efforts to provide a conducive space where its children and teenagers can learn, appealing to the public to help in making this a reality.
“We are very committed to ensuring that our children have a conducive space where they can learn and where they will be given the right teaching. We are gathered here for the purpose of expansion of the physical space of the church. You can see how small this place is. We lack space for parking and we don’t have a suitable space where children and teenagers can have their church services,” Opadokun said.
“We were lucky to be informed that owners of the next building to our mission want to sell it and we saw it as very good opportunity to carry out the expansion that we have been praying for many years. That is the reason we organised this breakfast luncheon to raise funds so that we would be able to buy it the house.
“The cost of the building is N52 million and we have already engaged experts to make designs and see how the place can be remodelled and maximised optimally for parking space, children and teenage church. We are appearing to well-meaning Nigerians to help us because we can’t do it on our own.”