Assemblies of God Church, Nigeria has directed its teeming membership not to seat on the poltical fence but to get involved in the electoral process by participating in the voters’ registration exercise.

In a message to the Rivers District’s 431 serving Pastors, the District Superintendent, Dr. Daddy  Ibulubo directed all Pastors to register and encourage their members to obtain voter’s card to be qualified to exercise their franchise during the polls.

Rev. Ibulubo who registered last Saturday at Unit eight, ward four, Okrika in Okrika Local Government Area of the State said as part of the efforts to build a civil society and foster positive change, it had become necessary for all the membership of the denomination and indeed the Christians, to participate fully in the exercise saying that “without the voter’s card efforts to enthrone credible candidates in the polity would be a mirage.”

“We are law-abiding people, called by God to preserve public morality and salinity, therefore we are poised to savour and comply with such policies, programmes and directives of government so that we will be able to influence the trend of events in society, applying our Kingdom principles” Rev. Ibulubo said.

He noted that the much desired positive change would be elusive if the church and committed Christians treated the processes of governance with disdain.

According to him, evil thrive when good men failed to affect the political system and noted that apathy to politics portended far more hazardous consequences against the Church and the larger society.

Dr. Ibulubo decried the growing non-challant attitude towards civic responsibilities and stated that the Christian book – the Bible did not restrict Christians from participating in programmes that did not negate their belief system.

“We encourage Christians to participate in politics because with time, there will be positive changes. If Christians did not participate in politics, evil and maladministration will persist and prevail”, he said and expressed optimism that with the level of political awareness among Christians, the evident rot in the political processes would soon be stemmed.

The District Superintendent however said Assemblies of God was determined to make its members who are actively involved in partisan politics to imbibe the virtues of honesty, integrity, accountability and above all, fear of God.