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CCNTV6
  • 2 years ago
Thieves broke into the Tabernacle of Prayer on Abercromby Street, Port of Spain, stealing several items, but also desecrating the House of God. Bishop Dr Jankee Raghunanan tells us what happened.
Transcript
00:00 At 2am on Friday, the 1st of March, the Abercombrie Street arm of the Tabernacle of Prayer TNT
00:06 was broken into by vandals. Bishop Dr Janki Raghunanan and some 100 worshippers discovered
00:13 something was awry when they gathered for the 10am service on that same day. The roof
00:19 through which the thieves entered was open, items were in disarray and many were missing.
00:25 "The mixing board, the mixer, the mixer was gone, the speakers, the four speakers
00:32 were gone, the keyboard was gone, you know, and the guitars were also taken away, removed
00:42 from the auditorium. We had foodstuff that we would normally give to, you know, those
00:49 who are needy, who come to the service, and they took all those things."
00:54 It's a huge hit for the church, especially during the solemnity of Easter.
00:59 "To show that people have no fear for God, to have done such a thing at such a time,
01:07 and they've come into the house of God, taken stuff, but desecrated the house of God
01:14 by opening can stuff, eating and drinking and throwing glasses all over the place and
01:20 having a great time, enjoying what they're doing."
01:24 The thieves may have very well left drunk on communal wine.
01:28 "Yes, communal, the communion Welsh, you know, the Welsh wine, right, that we normally
01:33 have in the refrigerator and maybe we'll have put away, you know, for communion. So
01:38 yes, they drank all that and they left the bottles on the altar by the stage, you know,
01:45 that's what I'm saying. And that is what hurt me the most. Everything hurts, but what
01:49 hurts me the most is the desecration of the house of God, the place of worship. And I
01:56 say this should not be done in no place of worship."
02:00 Another bishop heard of their situation.
02:03 "Sunday morning we had nothing to place, not a sound system, nothing. And he came and
02:09 he loaned us a sound system. Sunday night, Monday, you know, someone went to check the
02:19 place out again. And when they went there, they discovered that sound system and everything
02:26 that was given to us was again. So within 72 hours there was two robberies."
02:32 But the thieves did not use the same method of entry.
02:36 "Second time, what they did above the building, we do have the offices there and the offices
02:44 do have the window units. So they went and they pulled the window units out and they
02:50 came in the second time into the office."
02:52 That's the reconditioned unit.
02:54 "Right. And that's where they took all the computers, but all the office supplies
03:00 and the damage, all the cabinets were smashed up, documents missing, everything, everything.
03:06 I think they were looking for finances, for money. And that's why they smashed up everything.
03:13 We couldn't get anything."
03:15 Their losses are estimated at over $190,000. Added to that, Bishop Raghunanan says more
03:22 funds will have to be invested in making the church more secure, something religious entities,
03:29 once upon a time, never even had to consider.
03:32 In this instance, Bishop Janki does not believe, as had been suggested in the case of the Ramleela
03:38 desecration, that mentally ill individuals are behind attacks on places of worship.
03:44 "These have to be brilliant people who are doing the job. You can't go and take those
03:49 speakers down. You need to go with the equipment. These people would have been coming into the
03:54 building. We don't know who come to worship and we don't know who come to do whatever.
03:58 So they came with the tools. The galvanized, these are not just galvanized sheets that
04:04 are nailed down that you can pull out. It's riveted on. It's riveted on. It's a steel
04:10 roof. So, you know, no, no, making that is just a passive statement. And this must not
04:18 be a passive statement. This, we must come together and stop whatever is taking place
04:24 in our country. Forensics came and they were unable to take much things because they came
04:30 with gloves. They came prepared. They came with things to open up things. Actually, when
04:39 the guys were putting up the speakers, they had to get something to lift, a lift to lift
04:43 it up. So they are professionals. So for us, so yes, they are sick in the mind because
04:49 they do a thing like, to God, if you tell me they have no spirituality, I'll understand
04:54 that. He'd like to retrieve the items, have the men behind the break-in captured and as
04:59 a leader who would like to see a transformed Trinidad and Tobago, that these people can
05:05 come and confess to God and then speak to the public and go outside and say to the other
05:11 criminal brothers to change their lives because we are a people of forgiveness. Urvashi Tewari,
05:18 Rupnur Rai, TV6 News.
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