Now Police allow HH thanksgiving prayers to be held

City of Refuge Ministries Overseer Pastor Kangwa Chileshe says police have now allowed him to hold a thanksgiving ceremony on the day of his choice.

This follows the move by police yesterday to block the thanksgiving prayers at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema following his release from prison.

Pastor Chileshe has told QTV News that police canceled yesterday’s thanksgiving ceremony on the basis that he did not get a police permit to organize such a gathering.

He says following his summoning by the Lusaka province Police Command yesterday, he was told that he needed to write to the Ministry of Religious Affairs notifying the Minister of the event.

Pastor Chileshe, however, argues that in his twenty years of ministering, he has never been stopped by authorities on the pretext that he did not get a police permit.

Pastor Chileshe has explained that when he attempted to enter the premises of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, he was denied entry by the police.

He says he was later in the day called back by Lusaka Province Police Commissioner Nelson Phiri informing him that National Guidance and Religious Affairs Minister Reverend Godfridah Sumaili had given the go ahead for the prayers on the day of his choice.

Pastor Chileshe has since stated that he will communicate the new date on which the prayers will be held.