‘Hold him responsible if anything happens to me’ — Daddy Freeze reacts to Ibiyeomie’s threat

Daddy Freeze, a radio personality, has reacted to threats by David Ibiyeomie, a pastor of Salvation Ministries, saying he should be held responsible should any harm befalls him.

In a now-viral video from his Sunday service, the televangelist had threatened to “arrest and kill” the on-air personality over his critical stance of David Oyedepo, the presiding bishop of Living Faith Church.

The cleric had also described Freeze, whose real name is Ifedayo Olarinde, as a “bastard Somalia-born half-caste”.

“Somebody that is a broadcaster, does he have a good job? I will never be alive to see someone insult my father. You’re not born! I’ll kill, arrest him,” he had threatened.

Ibiyeomie’s threats to the OAP had sparked a heated debate on Twitter, where users registered their different opinions.

Freeze, however, took to his vlog to bare his thoughts on the threats to his life and some of the pastor’s comments, which he said undermined the integrity of journalism and broadcasting work.

Reacting to the threats, he said: “Is this how Nigeria is going to accept this? if anything happens to me, I hope you know who to hold responsible? This has been on social media space for the past 24 hours now, I am yet to hear anything from the police, what happened to our laws on hate speech, racism, discriminatory statements, threat to life which is actually criminal? ”

The radio personality, who is the leader of the Free Nation in Christ, also denied ever insulting Oyedepo. In the 10-minute video, he said he only pointed out the cleric’s wrong interpretation of Ephesians chapter five.

“I was very devastated by that video because of the contents thereof. I didn’t insult Bishop David Oyedepo. He quoted from the book of Ephesians 5:22 and I drew his attention to verse 21,” he said.

“Correcting scripturally is not an insult. There’s no way you’re going to preach and not get criticism. Even my friends who agree doctrinally still disagree with scriptures and ideologies here and there.”

Freeze expressed his disappointment that “just to get to me, Pastor Ibiyeomie, would drag the whole of Somalia.

“I’m very proud to associate myself with Somalians because they’re beautiful Africans like you and me,” he added.

“It’s hate speech to undermine them with derogatory words like there’s anything wrong in being one of them, even though by birth, I’m not Somalian. My mum is European and my dad is Yoruba.”

He also declared that he is proud of his profession as a broadcaster.

“I’m broadcaster for the last 25 years and dedicated my life to this profession, taken my children the radio to familiarize themselves with it, hoping that one or two of them would fall in love with it,” he said.

“But you demean it. Are we going to make broadcasters feel bad for making broadcasting their career choice because of how little the money there is?

“Maybe broadcasters should collect tithe too so you at least get the feeling someone of his caliber is talking to you. You should apologise to journalists and broadcasters for undermining our work.”