Leo Igwe, the Director of Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AFAW), has challenged Apostle Johnson Suleman to miraculously heal a Coronavirus patient or an HIV patient and get $1,000.
AFAW had on Sunday attacked Suleman for demanding that the government should allow pastors into isolation centers to pray and heal COVID-19 patients.
In reaction to Apostle Suleman’s demands, Leo Igwe, who is the founder of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and also the director of the Advocacy for Alleged Witches, wrote an open letter to Apostle Suleiman, challenging him to prove his spiritual powers and get rewarded for it.
Leo Igwe wrote in the letter: “I am challenging the founder of Omega Ministries, Apostle Suleman, to demonstrate his so-called gift of healing under agreed medical and scientific conditions. I ask Suleman to heal a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and get a thousand US dollars. This challenge has become necessary because Apostle Suleman has in a recent video urged the government of Nigeria to allow him and other pastors with the gift of healing into the isolation centers so that they could pray and heal those who have been infected by the virus.
“This request should not go unattended. Suleman specifically said that the gifted pastors could heal 18 out of 20 COVID-19 patients. This is a reasonable number. Isn’t it? And in a recent tweet, Apostle Suleman affirmed that (his) God was bigger than the Coronavirus. This challenge is for Suleman to heal, not two or three persons, not 10 or 15 patients but one person with a viral infection.”
Mr. Igwe further added that various religious leaders are always claiming they performed miracles to heal numerous diseases “through faith and prayers”. He said now is the time to prove that they are effective.
Leo Igwe added: “Incidentally, faith healing in Africa has largely been taken for granted. Faith healing claims have gone unchallenged and untested. There has not been any major effort to hold African faith healers to account or get them to openly and publicly demonstrate the potency and efficacy of their healing propositions under scientific testing conditions. The outbreak of COVID-19 offers an ample opportunity to realize this – to test and confirm the much-avowed healing gifts and abilities of pastors.
“So, I hereby challenge Apostle Suleman to prove that he can heal COVID-19 patients through prayer. Apostle Suleman will get one thousand US dollars for any proven case of faith healing of a COVID-19 patient under agreed scientific conditions.”
He challenged Suleman to heal COVID-19 patients from wherever he is as Christ also performed miracles from a distance.
He added: “Suleman should agree to pray for a COVID-19 patient from wherever he is since going into the isolation centers without face masks and personal protective equipment is not medically permitted and would violate existing laws and regulations. After all, Jesus performed miracles at a distance (John 4: 46-54). Didn’t he? And also the Bible enjoins believers to pray in secret, and that the prayers would be answered (Matthew 6:6).
“So, it is not necessary for Apostle Suleman or any gifted pastor to get into the isolation centers before they could pray and heal any COVID-19 patient.”
Leo Igwe suggested that if Suleman will not heal a Coronavirus patient, then he should heal a patient living with HIV.
Igwe, who holds a doctoral degree in religious studies from the University of Bayreuth, said: “Otherwise, I challenge Apostle Suleman to heal an HIV/AIDS patient through prayer and take home a thousand US dollars. HIV is another viral infection that is killing many people in Nigeria and across the world. Apostle Suleman should use this window to demonstrate under medical and scientific conditions his supernatural gift of healing. He should show Nigerians and the rest of the world that his God is truly bigger than a virus, whether it is COVID-19 or HIV. I hope that Apostle Suleman or any other gifted pastor accepts this challenge and seizes this opportunity to demonstrate the potency and efficacy of faith healing.”
