By Orji Sampson
The Spiritual head of Adoration Ministry Enugu, Father Ejike Mbaka is reportedly in fresh trouble after he blessed the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu on his adoration altar.
Trumpeta scooped that the controversial Catholic Church preacher and Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry may have been suspended for blessing the leader of the agitating group proscribed by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Recall that on Wednesday at about the time for Adoration hour, the absence of the Spiritual Director led to the supporters of the fiery Catholic preacher to go on rampage in Enugu in protest, thinking he might have been arrested by the DSS for his recent criticisms of President Muhammadu Buhari, a report Fr Mbaka is said to have since refuted.
According to an online report, Mbaka said he was kept incommunicado by the diocesan Bishop, Callistus Valentine Onaga, and was 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 (being Wednesday). 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,” the embattled priests said.
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 publicly praying for Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
He observed that 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,” Mbaka was quoted saying to his followers.
