Controversial Nigerian social media critic, VeryDarkMan, has fiercely criticized Pastor David Ibiyeomie of Salvation Ministries for threatening to arrest bloggers and journalists who publish content about him.
This comes after a video surfaced showing Pastor Ibiyeomie warning content creators to stop writing or speaking about him or his ministry, regardless of whether the reports are positive or negative. His remarks have triggered widespread backlash, with many seeing it as an attempt to intimidate the media.
In a detailed video response, VeryDarkMan took the pastor to task, accusing him of attempting to misuse the Nigerian police to oppress citizens. He questioned the morality of a religious leader making such statements and warned that such threats would not go unchallenged.
“All right. With all due respect, sir. Pastor. I know you travel outside the world. You travel to different countries of the world. Have you ever seen anybody brag like this with police? Using police to oppress people. Using police to lock up people?” he said.
VeryDarkMan suggested that the pastor was trying to exploit his influence to silence people, adding, “That means you are using your influence now to say you can use the police to oppress. You can pay the police to oppress.”
He stressed that such actions would be unacceptable in more developed countries where law enforcement acts independently. “You know why? Because those police will do their investigation. And you can’t command police to do anything whether you are influential or not,” he said.
Lamenting the state of the Nigerian justice system, he added, “That is why I say even the pastors follow spoil the country. But people don’t understand what I was saying… Look at what you are using to brag. Anybody that talks about it—go and lock somebody. We will remove the person first. And if we don’t remove the person, we will stand in front of your church till you release the person.”
According to him, fear should not be used as a weapon of control. “Nobody will fear you. In order to liberate that country, we will drop respect. Anybody who has no respect will not be respected. Who are you that we will fear? Are you not a man? Are you not a human being?”
VeryDarkMan further criticized pastors who, in his view, deviate from Christian values. “You come online and say something that will brainwash the public and you expect everyone to keep quiet? It shows that you are not even a Christian. Because Christians are Christ-like… You are not acting like Jesus Christ would act. So you are not even a pastor. Based on this, you are not even a Christian.”
He insisted that criticism and commentary are part of the democratic process, so long as no lies are involved.
“There is freedom of speech, freedom of expression, provided nobody is defaming you… You can’t say don’t carry any news about me, both good or bad. You can’t do anything. That’s my country. That’s everybody’s country.”
Calling out the Nigerian system that allows the powerful to manipulate the police, he said, “That’s why the elite can brag. Because people can easily just remove 5 Naira, 10 Naira and give. They will do your bidding. But can you brag like this outside the country? Not only in Nigeria will they use police to arrest people for civil matters and turn them into criminal cases just to satisfy the big man.”
He ended with a warning: “It’s a shame. You are not a Christian. I don’t criticise you to be arrested. I will give my fair comments. And this is my fair comment… Thank God you are Niger Delta. I am Niger Delta. Full Niger Delta. If you play, you will learn. You will learn the hard way.”
The video has since gained massive attention online, with many Nigerians weighing in on the tension between freedom of speech and abuse of influence by public figures.
