ZAMBIA – A Kitwe Pastor on Tuesday morning escaped lynching from mourners after a man he had advised to stop taking Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARVs) following prayers died.
The deceased, a resident of Kamatipa Township in Kitwe whose names have been withheld, sought prayers from Boniface Chibale of House of Blessings Church after a long illness.
Pastor Chibale then offered prayers and allegedly advised the man to stop taking ARVs, saying prayer was enough to have him healed.
However, that seemed not to have been the will of God as the named resident died on Sunday, a move that angered family members who suspected that their relative had died because he had stopped taking ARVs.
According to some eyewitnesses, some relatives to the deceased pounced on Pastor Chibale in the early of hours of Tuesday and dragged him to the funeral house where he received good beatings before he escaped.
“I just saw some guys who came and dragged the Pastor and took him to the funeral house where he was harassed,” one of the witnesses explained.
And one of the relatives said Pastor Chibale had been visiting the deceased and offered prayers on several occasions.
She said the deceased had stopped taking ARVs as far back as May last year.
“The pastor had been visiting the deceased on several occasions and prophesied a lot to him, but I was surprised that he was unwell. We had not met for some time but we used to communicate. The Pastor did advise him to stop taking ARVs that time I was here…around May last year on the 20th. So…I have heard the same story but one of the boys informed his friends; they are the ones that went to drag the same Pastor,” said the relative who refused to be named.
She said the family had agreed to engage Pastor Chibale after burial.
Copperbelt Police commissioner Charity Katanga was unaware of the incident when phoned, saying her office had not received any report concerning the beating of the Pastor.
Source : Zambia Reports
