Pastors who are against Christians taking coronavirus vaccine have been slammed by Senior Pastor of Trinity Church, Ituah Ighodalo.

Ighodalo, speaking on Arise TV, urged pastors to encourage their congregation to invest their time in getting scientifically proven information from professionals on the COVID-19 vaccine rather than spread conspiracy theories and unverified information.

According to him, the argument for and against COVID-19 vaccine is a problem of knowledge.

Citing biblical references, Ighodalo said some of the pastors, who are discouraging their members from getting the vaccines, are wrongly basing their actions on faith rather than proper understanding of when to apply wisdom and when to apply prayers.

According to him, “it is foolishness to keep having faith that God will protect you from an infection he has made provision for vaccines that can provide a high percentage of protection.”

The cleric said: “I have taken the jab. I prayed about it, and I got a clear direction from God to go and receive it, and I have explained to my people in church that God provides knowledge. I will like to appeal to my brother pastors to do their research, get the knowledge and stop misinforming and improperly educating people on guess work, instincts and mere suppositions. Coronavirus is real, and you need the vaccination.

“The Bible says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

He called on the government to compel the church and also the leaders to get qualified knowledge and answer important questions on COVID-19 vaccine.

“Some people think the COVID-19 vaccine is a deliberate effort to wipe out the human population.

“We need to address the fears and prove it is not so. Other persons think it is the sign of the anti-christ (666) and we need to prove this is not also true.

“Other people believe the vaccines have long term effect and if you take it today, in 20 years’ time, it would affect them. We also need to address such fears and prove scientifically this is not so,” he said.

He stressed that most theories, fears and questions posed about COVID-19 needs to be properly addressed by the government.

“The problem is a lot of these questions about the vaccine are not being properly addressed and there is too much rumour flying all over the place. Some churches believe in divine health but if they study further, they would also know that God provided knowledge for healing,” Ighodalo added.

His comment is coming at a time when the likes of of Chris Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy, Apostle Johnson Suleman and many other religious leaders have kicked against receiving COVID-19 vaccine.