BEVERLY HILLS, May 06, (THEWILL) – Controversial Catholic Church preacher and Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka, has absolved the Department of State Security (DSS) from his supposed disappearance.
THEWILL reported that the supporters of the fiery Catholic preacher went on a rampage in Enugu on Wednesday in protest, thinking he might have been arrested by the DSS for his recent criticisms of President Muhammadu Buhari.
But Mbaka said he was kept incommunicado by the diocesan bishop, Callistus Valentine Onaga, and ordered not to make public statements for a month.
“The DSS was not involved in what happened. But the Bishop gave an order that I should not come here from today. I should leave Adoration House, parish house, that (here should be) silent, no programme here for 30 days and I should stay silent for 30 days.”
Mbaka was a staunch supporter of Buhari before the 2015 general election and publicly endorsed the then-candidate Buhari. He also supported the Nigerian leader for a second term.
But his criticism of the President late last month marked a change in their once chummy relationship when Mbaka called Buhari a failure, blaming him for the mounting security challenges in the country.
He asked the National Assembly to impeach Buhari should he refuse to resign.
“How can people be dying and the chief security officer of the country would be sitting down without making any comment. Gunmen attacking people everywhere. Buhari should have resigned honourably following his failure as a leader,” Mbaka told his congregation on April 29.
A spokesman to the Nigerian President, Garba Shehu, said Mbaka lashed out at Buhari after the President refused to award contracts to the preacher.
However, despite wide speculations and social media reports, Mbaka himself did not confirm that the plan by the Bishop Calistus Onaga-led church leadership sailed through.
As he narrated, Mbaka said the Catholic Church leaders and the Bishop summoned him during the week on matters especially bordering on him public praying for Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
They also took offence with his last week’s vituperations against President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he said God instructed him to prophesy against over the intractable insecurity quagmire.
However, he said that when he sensed the drift of the heated discussions targeted at him, he pleaded to be allowed to soften the ground among his members so that the news of his 30-day suspension would not cause some uproar, but the leaders refused, insisting he must proceed at once.
He said: “How can they believe what others say, and they will not believe what the priest is saying?
“The emphasis is, ‘Please, let me go to celebrate the mass,’ but they said, ‘No.’ If a priest will request to celebrate mass and they say, ‘No’, that means something is wrong.
“Allow me to go and celebrate mass for my people just for today, I won’t even tell them that I am being punished, they said, No. I will just tell my members that I’m going for 30 days prayer, that after 30 days, we will come back and everybody will obey, they said, No.
“I also begged them to appoint another priest to come and celebrate mass for you today, they also said No.
“They didn’t treat me in a pastoral way. I was asking, ‘Am I being punished for what?’
“They said it was a meeting, but even before I reached the Bishop’s house, conclusion has already been made. What happened to me was like the day I was shot on the road.
“Unfortunately for them, even before the meeting, a woman was already going around bragging that the Bishop will call me for a meeting, and that I was going to leave my house here for 30 days, and that after the 30 days, I would be sent to Rome, and Adoration ministry will be closed.
“In a time and cases like this, don’t give me a punishment that will cause troubles for us because I’m not alone.”
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