DAVAO CITY — The founding leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (KOJC), Pastor Apollo Quiboloy linked the spread of the new Covid variant, Omicron, to the sex trafficking charges filed against him.
"Delta variant is only an introduction. If you keep on hurting, persecuting, and harming the Appointed Son, and the Kingdom, you will see much worse than the Omicron virus," Quiboloy told his followers on Sunday, November 28.
"Have you not noticed? Every time I pray and the Kingdom is being assaulted, this is the first time this Delta variant pandemic came after January 29, 2020. And after November 18, right after the malicious and vicious persecution that was heaped upon me and my name and the Kingdom nation all of a sudden, you did not notice that? That is not a coincidence," Quiboloy said.
"You can stop this by my suggestion, stop persecuting, prosecuting, maligning the Kingdom and the Appointed Son and this will stop," he added.
The World Health Organization designated the variant Omicron (B.1.1.529) "a variant of concern."
"The first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on 9 November 2021," the WHO said in its statement on November 26.
On November 18, the Federal Grand Jury issued a new indictment against Quiboloy and two top administrators of the KOJC,
The church leader and officials were charged of "orchestrating a sex trafficking operation that coerced girls and young women to have sex with the church’s leader under threats of 'eternal damnation.'"
The indictment alleged that Quiboloy and other KOJC administrators "told pastorals that performing ‘night duty’ was ‘God’s will’ and a privilege, as well as a necessary demonstration of the pastoral’s commitment to give her body to defendant Quiboloy as ‘The Appointed Son of God.’”