A popular Cameroonian pastor,
Frankline Ndifor, who laid hand on Coronavirus patients to recover from the
virus has died of the pandemic.
Fear has now gripped large number of
his followers following his death.
He had prayed for hundreds of his
supporters to get cure of the coronavirus.
Cameroon police used force to gain
access to his residence in the economic capital city Douala, as some of his
supporters blocked entrances, praying for his resurrection, Voice of America
reports.
Hundreds of followers sang Sunday
morning at Ndifor’s Douala residence that the man popularly referred to as the
prophet is not dead, but he is rather on a spiritual retreat with God and will
return soon. Their singing and prayers were broadcast by several local radio
stations.
Ndifor died and was buried in front
of his residence Saturday by workers of Cameroon’s COVID-19 response team in
Douala.
Doctor Gaelle Nnanga said by
messaging application from Douala that Ndifor died less than a week after being
diagnosed with COVID-19.
He said that some members of
Ndifor’s Kingship International Ministries Church called him to come to the
pastor’s aid when they found out Ndifor was in agony, and that when the medical
team he leads arrived, Ndifor was having severe respiratory difficulties. He
says the pastor died less than 10 minutes after they treated him.
The governor of Cameroon’s coastal
region, where Douala is, said in a release he deployed police to force their
way to Ndifor’s residence when his followers chased medical staff away,
claiming that the pastor was on a spiritual retreat with God, rather than dead,
and should not be buried.
Ndifor follower Rigobert Che says
the “prophet” last Wednesday prayed for him and several dozen people diagnosed
with COVID-19, and some who suspected they were carriers or had symptoms. He
says via a messaging application that Ndifor’s death has brought panic to the
hundreds of people who have been visiting him for prayers for a divine cure.
“This is a pastor that has been
laying hands [on the sick] and claiming that he cures COVID-19,” Che said. “If
you, the person that claims that you are curing COVID-19, you are dead, what
about the fellow people that were affected by the COVID-19? Now that he is
dead, I do not know how the people that he was laying hands on will be healed.”
Medical staff are asking all those
who came in contact with the pastor to report to hospitals to be tested for
COVID-19, according to VOA.
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