THE Lusaka City Council (LCC) has dragged Bread of Life Church International to court in connection with the local authority’s findings at the Blessing Centre where a congregant died on Saturday after a ceiling fell on him during a Church service.
LCC public relations officer Henry Kapata said in Lusaka yesterday that the council had sued Bread of Life Church International for failure to obtain a partial certificate of occupation and a fire certificate. Mr Kapata said the summons was served on the Church on Tuesday this week.“The Lusaka City Council has sued Bread of Life Church International. They will appear in court on December 20, 2011.
The summons was delivered to them yesterday,” he said.On Monday, LCC sent a team of public health and building inspectors to the multi-billion Kwacha Blessing Centre currently under construction in Emmasdale residential area following the death of Arton Nyirenda.
Mr Nyirenda died on his way to the University Teaching Hospital after sustaining fatal facial injuries caused by a falling ceiling board during a special dedication service at the centre last Sunday. The incident was caused by a strong thunderstorm that lasted between 10 and 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, Bread of Life Church International presiding bishop Joe Imakando led hundreds of mourners in Kitwe to pay their last respects to Elder Nyirenda.
The requiem service started at Bread of Life Church Central where scriptures were read and body viewing was done before proceeding to Kitwe-Chingola Road Cemetery for burial.
[Times of Zambia]
May God bless Zambia. RIP Mr. Nyirenda.
Good move, Show justice to the fake, Selfish Man on God.
too bad Elder Nyirenda’s family and the church that will miss him and his humble service. MHSRIP!
These bodies sometimes(if not always) take forever to inspect and issue incenses too
Imwe, ba council, dont be funny, is bread of life the only church that is congregating in unfinished building? Go around and do a survey, you will be suprised how many churches are doing that. you just want a share of their tithes!
the days of Henry kapata at L C C are numbered
Way to go LCC. We can alway hide behind the devil. Imakando must account for lack of judgement or wisdom
Leave spiritual issues to God and leave the man of God alone. who has appointed you judge over him? Elder Nyirenda chose to serve God and worked in the house of the Lord. As far as I am concerned he died an honourable death in the house of the Lord from where he worked. MHSRIP, I salute him. May the Almighty God comfort and strengthen his family as well as BOLC. Bambi mukafwila kwi ? Every1 has his/her 1day to depart from this earth!
May his soul rest in internal peace.
LCC if poor Mr Nyirenda was not cut by ceiling shrapenel would you have sent your team of inspectors to inspect the unfinished building? Let the Lozi pastor enjoy also ,he too is a son of GOD.
Lusaka City Council, I beg your pardon, you are too quick to sue defenceless churches when you yourselves have failed miserably to provide health services such as cleaning and removing garbage at markets, maintaining the drainage system, provide water to every household, cleaning the streets, the list goes on and on. These services you have failed to provide have resulted in many deaths, directly or otherwise. It’s about time that the people of Lusaka started suing the LCC for their failures. The people are paying huge sums of money to the council for services that are not there.
so are yo saying the church should not be sued?? do you know that a wrong can never b corrected with another wrong? this is a person and you chose to compare him with garbage
Iwe Chwela filishani, who told you that its only bread of life church being followed ?Stop being funny !!
Maybe the personal jet can be put on the back burner and finish the church building before we lose more lives.
#6 kamunga boy…..point of correction, its not henry kapata, its lusaka city council and the law. dont be arrogant and ignorant. leave kapata alone
Hmm..this is an interesting one. And reading the comments here, I think it is possible to sue LCC for negligence here. Will they prove in court that they did warn Bread of Life repeatedly and their warnings was ignored? If not then they have no case. Rather people should sue the council for not carrying out inspections and allowing people to use buildings.
This is a complex case than it seems. Bread of Life needs to get a lawyer, they can turn around this case against the council. If the church asked inspectors to come and inspect and inspectors never showed up, that could be a case against the council. I will be following this case.
Sad story. Often, we take Health and Safety for granted but when things go very wrong like in the case of Dr Murray vs Michael jackson and in this case, you discocer you broke the law and you could go to jail. I wish well to whoever is responsible for H&S at Bread of Life.
A timely reminder to all of us not to take H&S for granted wherever we are.
Well we shall wait and see the out come of the court process.
Is this where we will be having the Kirk Franklin Concert on 5th Dec, 2011?
Ba LCC go round lusaka and check how many people are congregating in unfinished building let alone those staying in unfinished mansions,,,problem with some of these institutions— you are quick to respond to disasters than mitigating them,,,,”prevention is beter than cure”….Rest in Peace Rev Nyirenda.
A way to go indeed.The false prophet should know better.Only in Emasdale would you find a pastor with a milion dollar home,designer cloths and a hammer only fit for a pimp.Amen ! God show us the light.
He should have been charged with negligence and causing the death of Mr Nyirenda.
Guys let call a Spade a Spade a wrong is a wrong no matter how sweet it may seem.The case involved is one of negligence.The Elder was owed the duty of care,there was the breach of that duty of care and as a result of that breach the Elders family is now suffering damage which in this case is the death of the Elder.
Way to go LCC, they are sending the right message to all those business establishments ie. Restaurants, Hotels, Entertainment venues etc, who put peoples lives at risk everyday…more of this please.
Double standards!!!!!!!
Manda Hill was left operating while modificational construction was going on and one person died.
Levy junction has not completed its construction; machinery is still moving round finising off construction but they have started operating with full blessing of LCC. What behaviour is at LCC.
Let us grow up as local authorities.
rest in peace. imakando may God give you streangth and the deceased family
I am a born again Christian aswell, the council is correct in what they have done, bread of life should comply end lead by example. Apologize to the people and see this case through with prayers hard work and a better worshipping structure. All things work for the good for those that love the Lord. The council should follow up all other institutions and public properties this is good for our country. Prayers for the Nyirenda family, for comfort during this trying time.
#24 Wakwitu, I am with you. Also, let’s hope the church will give the Nyirendas a good compensation for the lost life, like a life isnurance payout. I believe they will consider it.
Both the church and LCC are to blame for what happened. My appeal to Bread Of Life church is that they MUST now look after elder Nyirenda’s family- the widow and the fatherless (if any) becuase there is a tendance to taking care of the clergy who are already well to do at the expence of such people in dire need. DO the WORD of God.
Even shep have started barking like guard dogs now!! LCC are chasing after the church, well and good. I think that they didn’t have to take the church to court, they could have just sat down with the church to find out what happened. LCC can’t cheat us today pretending they are efficient. Unless it is just hatred for the church or imakando that they have, it is all just for show. Meanwhile, Indians in kamwala are operating windowless shops, lusaka city is dirty, they are failing to control street vendors, they are failing to maintain street lights – Lusaka is the darkest city in sub-Saharan Africa – which includes Southern, Eastern, Central and West Africa. And now LCC wants to lie that they are efficient?? Well, why didn’t they inspect before the building if they are that good???
#25 – I like your blog name! One of my fav tv programmes! Anyway, what you are saying makes sense as well.
THIS is not a time for finger pointing. The circumstances were caused by a strong wind that not only affected that unfinished Church,but other houses as well around the same area, which was also shown on TV. Destruction caused by “Acts of God” are not the same thing as “negligence” eg a tyre burst causing a car to overturn. This is a time for prayer and solidarity with our Bread of Life brothers and sisters, more so Pastor Imakando and his eldership. It is a difficult time for them and accusations are ofcourse expected. This is a time for proper and “no-joke” prayer, reflection and listening to the whole counsel of God. For the friends at Bread of Life, probably we may also have fallen into the “Tower of Babel” trap where their aim was to celebrate the work of their hands than God?
yes of course the the wind was caused by an Act of God we cant deny it but whole in whole if the church had taken whole the reasonable precautions so as to prevent acts which are likely to endanger the lives of the congregants before the could have moved into the church for example completing the building before the had moved in do you think if the wind came like it came it could have resulted to that no i don’t think so and so would any reasonable and prudent person.Negligence is falling below the standard required or expected of a reasonable and prudent person.