AMAZING GRACE: THE EXCESSES OF SOME MEN OF GOD

AMAZING GRACE: THE EXCESSES OF SOME MEN OF GOD:                          The Rev. Emeka Ezeugo King General overseer of the Christ Praying Assembly ,CPA, awaiting execution -----...

THE EXCESSES OF SOME MEN OF GOD

                        The Rev. Emeka Ezeugo King

General overseer of the Christ Praying Assembly ,CPA, awaiting execution

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(I took this story from an article published in the Nigerian online journal, naija.com by Adams Odunayo yesterday 27 February 2016 – Tikum Mbah Azonga)

HOW I SERVED THE MAN OF GOD STARK NAKED FOR YEARS - MAID

“Miss Susan Chizoba, a former maid of the general overseer of the Christ Praying Assembly (CPA), Rev. Emeka King, has revealed how she served the pastor as a maid for seven years, stark naked. Explaining how her parents took her to Reverend King’s home in 2000 believing it to be a Christian home, Miss Chizoba said: “When I came to live with the accused (Rev. King), he told me that I would be his permanent maid and that I would agree not to marry. He said anytime I wanted to serve him I must be stark naked which I did. No pant, no bra, I would be completely nude before him and I did this not once, not twice, but for several years. He also ordered me not to tell any member of my family where I was living. He gave me a ring which I always put on to indicate that I am his permanent maid and all this he made me to put into writing. I am a member of the Lord’s army and we bully people, putting fear into them and molesting them.

“Rev. King is a very violent person, he would beat us mercilessly and as a result we always have wounds on our bodies. He called himself god, the owner of the universe and could do anything. We know this is not so but out of fear we could not challenge him. On the 22nd July 2006 the day of the fire incident, a sister named Kelechi came to call me from the Boys Quarter of the Rev. King’s house where we were staying that the accused wanted to see me.

 “When I got to him he did not even allow me to kneel down as we usually did when talking to him before he started beating me with stick, rod and anything he could find. I started crying, shouting and begging him not to kill me. It was then I noticed others who were there; Cosy, Chiejile, Jessica, Ann, Vivian and Kelechi. He accused me that I lied to him that Chiejile did not sleep with me whereas Chiejile had confessed to him that he slept with me. But Chiejile never did. He only said that so that the accused (Rev. King) will not kill him. “He said he would kill all of us. He then asked Kelechi to go and bring fuel and matches but when she brought it he told her that the petrol was not enough and that she should go and bring more which was brought in a very large plastic container. He then marched us out of the room saying he did not want to burn his rug and chair. While we were outside his room but within the church compound Kelechi poured petrol on us on his orders and he struck the first match which did not catch fire.

“When he struck the second match we were all engulfed in fire but I did not know how I managed to escape from there and I ran back to our apartment. When I noticed that Ann had been taken to the hospital, I ran out in my night gown and I never came back to the church. I came out of the place by the grace of God, I am free now, I am no longer under the spell of the accused person,” Miss Chizoba said. Miss Chizoba said this in 2006 while testifying against the controversially violent pastor before an Ikeja high court. At the time Rev. King was on trial for the murder of one of his members, Miss Ann Uzor and attempting to murder five others by pouring petrol on them and setting them ablaze.”

Rev. King was sentenced to death by a Lagos high court in Ikeja, on January 11, 2007, for the murder of one of his church members, Ann Uzoh. He appealed the judgment through his lawyer asking the apex court to overturn the high court’s judgement.

A unanimous judgement by a seven-man panel of justices led by Justice Walter Onnoghen, ‎on February 26 upheld the death sentence that was earlier handed to Ezeugo by the Lagos state high court in 2007, presided over by Justice Joseph Oyewole. The apex court in a lead judgment delivered by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, dismissed the appeal filed by Rev. King for lacking in merit and held that the facts of the case were “like what you see in a horror movie.”
Read more: https://www.naij.com/745593-unbelievable-read-igbo-group-wants-fg-rev-king-death-sentence.html

Rev. Emeka Ezeugo King had his death sentence upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, February 26, 2016.

 

AMAZING GRACE: THE CALLS FOR PAUL BIYA TO STAND AGAIN

AMAZING GRACE: THE CALLS FOR PAUL BIYA TO STAND AGAIN: Elizabeth Tamajong who is a former Secretary General of the SDF party is reported to have said that if Biya “knows from the depth o...

THE CALLS FOR PAUL BIYA TO STAND AGAIN

Elizabeth Tamajong who is a former Secretary General of the SDF party is reported to have said that if Biya “knows from the depth of his heart that he doesn’t have the physical strength to continue to rule Cameroon, then he should not give in” to increasing calls for him to run again for the post of President of the Republic.

The problem with Tamajong`s statement is that it does not ask Biya pointedly not to stand again as a candidate for the post. Her statement leaves it up to Biya to be his own  judge and determine how physically fit he is to rule the country for another term. That means that if after reflecting he decides that he is fit to run for the post, then he can stand as a candidate. So, would that solve Tamajong`s problem?

This debate has been rekindled in recent months – perhaps even weeks – by segments of the CPDM party of which Biya is the national chairman and groups of sympathetic “elite” from different parts of the country, publicly calling on Paul Biya – who has so far not responded – to stand as a candidate to his own succession as President of the Republic. Some advocates have even urged him to call early elections instead of waiting for the year 2018 when his current seven-year term is expected to expire.

Even so, not every Cameroonian wants Biya to stand as a candidate. In fact, some have been blunt enough to ask him to pack his bags and go (the “Paul Biya dégage!” campaign led by Bertin Kisob, a young committed Cameroonian who leads one of the legalized opposition parties) while others such as Nfor Susungi have written to Paul Biya informing him that they want his job. A Cameroonian journalist by the name of Mbah John Akuro has initiated a campaign aimed at collecting anti Biya signatures in the hope of convincing him that he is not wanted. The problem is that what if the pro-Biyas also start collecting signatures and in the end they garner more signatures than those in Mbah John Akuro`s camp? Such a scenario is very possible because Paul Biya and his cronies have the financial means to criss cross the country and collect as many signatures as they want. We must not forget that one of the criticisms so far leveled at Paul Biya`s style of management is that he uses state funds and manpower to run his political campaigns. Other opponents of Paul Biya have resorted to insulting and vilifying him out rightly. But how will that help them? If such an approach did not work in the scorched earth policy that the opposition adopted in the ghost town years of the early 1990s, is it today that it will work?

However, away from the wishes and suppositions, let us look at the hard facts. My conviction is that Biya is very likely to stand again as President will win and serve another term in or before 2018. You do not have to agree with me. But that is my view.

Firstly, the insinuations that Biya`s physical fitness may not allow him to hold the post are rather thin on the ground. This is because when we look at him, we still see a man who despite his advanced age of 83 years, is still able to walk without a stick, he can still hold a conversation without memory lapses, contrary to his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo who did not live up to Biya`s present age, yet who long before his death had already started suffering memory lapses. Biya can still stand for long hours like when receiving New Year wishes at Unity Palace, and perhaps over and above all is the fact that he is still able to ride his bicycle for sport.

Let us now focus on the issue of age. If Biya even becomes President again in 2018, he will be aged 85. Yes, we may say that at such an age, he will be a very old president. But then, Tunisia`s current President Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi who was born in 1926 (Biya was born in 1933) , became president of his country in 2014, at the age of 88 (while Biya became President at the age of 49). This year, the Tunisian President  will be 90 (while Biya is 83) and in 1918 when Biya is expected to seek another term, the Tunisian president will be 92 years old (while Biya is 85). Yet, at that age, Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi will be still president of his own country.

Another point is that if challenged further, Biya may very well point to Cameroon`s current constitution which does not have a limit to how many terms an incumbent president can rule the country. That means that if Biya can, to quote Britain`s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he can “go on and on”.

It is true that familiarity breeds contempt and that after being in power for nearly 34 years, Biya ought to stand down and let someone else do the job. Even so, it must be admitted that Cameroonians committed a big mistake when they allowed Biya`s ruling CPDM party to throw its weight around and remove the limitation that existed on the number of terms a Cameroonian president could serve. Now, Cameroonians have to live with the consequences of their inaction.

So, sadly enough, the constitution as it stands, gives Biya the moral high ground to run again for president, if he wants to. But it is entirely up to him. If anyone should force him to relinquish power, then that person has acted unconstitutionally and it would be difficult for such a person to justify his action in the eyes of the public and the world.

So if Biya insists on seeking another term, what option do his opponents and detractors have? Unfortunately, it is only the ballot box. I say “unfortunately’ because it will certainly be argued that he will “rig” and therefore render the ballot box meaningless in order to remain in power. Well, perhaps in that case, the hundreds of opposition parties that exist in the country should for once consider swallowing their pride and presenting a united front against him? Otherwise, come 2018, Paul Biya will very well still be President of Cameroon. Surely, a bitter pill to swallow for some, if not many?

HOW I WAS HEALED BY CLASSMATES

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          Picture of believers moved by the Holy Spirit 

        HOW I WAS HEALED BY CLASSMATES

DOING THINGS IN ANOTHER WAY

It is interesting that the last 15 years or so have seen an upsurge in the number of Pentecostal churches operating in Cameroon. One definition of the word, “Pentecostal” holds that Pentecostalism is “a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit.”

A DEEPLY-ROOTED PHENOMENON

In fact, not so many years ago, the number of such churches had been known to rise so spectacularly that in a single street in Bamenda, which is the headquarters of Cameroon`s North West Region – Vicky Street – there were said to be at least six different churches, although the street was not even a long one.

AN ALL PERVADING PRESENCE

Pentecostalism in the country has found its way on giant street posters, in radio stations and on television channels. Some of the churches have even set up their own radio stations and television channels. For some reason, Nigeria has become the leading African country in this domain with the Nigerian “man of God” most consulted by Cameroonians being undoubtedly the Lagos-based “Prophet T.B. Joshua”. Only in Buea, the regional headquarters of the South West Region, there are at least four “men of God” who have taken up residence there and are regularly visited by the converted and those seeking miracles. One of them is John Chi who underwent mentorship under T.B Joshua in Nigeria but has today set up his own “ministry’ in Buea. Yet some others were simply “called by God” and started preaching and converting, without necessarily going through pupilage. These include Divine Okafor of the Transformers’ Ministries and Sonny Damian Nwachuku of the Jesus Kingdom Embassy.

THE ORIGIN OF IT HERE

From my own observation, Pentecostalism broke into Cameroon in the mid to late 1980s when the world economic crisis hit Cameroon and deprived as well as destitute people were seeking for salvation (to quote the Cameroonian musician, Afo-a-Kom). Our countrymen and women in that great hour of need started turning towards God to seek solace. That was also when Cameroonian Anglophones who had never before taken commercial singing seriously started composing songs and selling them as well as staging concerts here and there.

MIRACLES AS THE HALLMARK

Surely, one characteristic of the Pentecostal churches is the performance of miracles or at least the belief in them. Not surprisingly, when many of such churches advertize their services, they put the thrust on miracles which they invite the public to come and experience. So they promise a day or night of “astounding miracles”.

However, miracles are by no means the preserve of Pentecostal churches because some mainstream churches have been known to use them too. These have been seen in the Presbyterian and Catholic churches. Pastor Wara Solomon introduced the movement in the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon but was excluded by the Church. However, he has gone solo and continued in the same vein under the canopy of what he calls “The Ramah Christian Centre”. The Catholic Church practices it under the “Charismatic movement”. Of course, when any such miracles are performed, the act is predicated on “the name of Jesus!”

MY SHARE OF MIRACLES

The Oxford Advanced Learner`s Dictionary defines a miracle as “an act or event that does not follow the laws of nature and is believed to be caused by God”. Not only do I believe in the word; but in fact, I directly experienced its effects when I was in Form 5 at Sacred Heart College in Mankon-Bamenda. I was ill and for two days I lay in bed in the dormitory (St. John`s Dormitory), unable to go for lectures. Since I was a Prefect, it was easy for me to get junior students to bring me food from the refectory and carry out basic chores for me such as laundry.

I can`t now remember whether it was just an ordinary fever or it was the more serious malaria that kept me down so mercilessly. However, what I know is that it made me feel terrible. One of my classmates – today a medical doctor in Douala – Henry Joko who was at the time our school`s Health Prefect and Student Dispenser gave me some drugs as was expected. Despite his efforts, my illness persisted.

One afternoon, when it was time for private classroom studies and my classmates where in class, I was surprised by a visit some of them made to my bedside in the dormitory. They were Charles Awasom (today, also a medical doctor), Emmanuel Ngwa Tahmundungnji Munanjo, Joseph Tibui (Joe Louis), George Atanga(Papi), Samuel Nji Ngang (Slim), Julius Fofan (Sly), Hyacinth nkuo (Thaddeus) who is also today a medical doctor, Christopher Fon Akoh (Dah), Michael Tandiba Fombutu and Paul Njofang (Nkwawo). The delegation was led by Charles Awasom.

They woke me up and when I opened my eyes, Charles Awasom went into action. He proclaimed amidst the loud applause of the others that they had come to heal me. He averred that whatever it was that was afflicting me was “here and now being declared null and void”. He said it was finished and now I was free to get up and walk. I cast off my blanket and much to my surprise, I felt the illness had actually gone away and I was feeling very much better. I made a few steps and they applauded.

I asked them to wait for me to go to the dormitory bathroom and have a bath. They did. When I returned and got dressed, they marched me in triumph to the classroom. When the classmates who had stayed in the classroom saw me coming in, the joy was total. From what I gathered, those who had come for me had vowed to the ones in the classroom that they were going to heal me and bring me back to class. And they did.

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