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A civil society group has petitioned Catholic Priests in Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province over their Interference and public display of their involvement in partisan politics in the just concluded 2023 Presidential and state House of Assembly elections in the state.
The group known as Patriotic Front of Nigeria based in Awka, Anambra State accused the Catholic clergy men of usurping powers of the altar to canvass for their favourite candidates to their congregation.
In a petition letter addressed to the The Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi the group named some Catholic Priests involved in the melee for political power thus deviating from primary responsibility of preaching the good gospel or in another instance advocating for good governance rather than pitching tents with their preferred candidates in return personal favours.
According to the letter signed by the Anambra State Chapter Coordinator of the group ,Chris Obi Okpala on Sunday the actions of the orthodox church pastors has implanted infighting between the current Governor Soludo and its former Governor and 2023 Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi of whom are both members of the church.
The group said that the priests of the Roman Catholic Church transformed from custodians of the faith and salvation of souls to full blown politicians, taking partisan postures and campaigning for Politicians without restraint.
While urging the Prelate of the Catholic Church to investigate the priests involved, the group queried why the state remained backward with poor infrastructure, high rate of unemployment, insecurity and brigandage despite the influence of Catholic church in the Political leadership of the state.
The petition reads in parts; “It has become necessary to draw your attention to the inappropriate role the members of the clergy within the Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province are playing especially during electioneering periods as witnessed in the just concluded Nigerian National elections.
“It is an open secret, so to say, that during electioneering periods, priests and a few highly connected lay faithful align with political money bags to undo others who may not have met other financial demands.
“Under other circumstances, the pulpits are used to cajole the faithful and congregants on who to vote for thus describing their favoured candidates as “competent and God sent”.
“This dangerous and acrimonious religious politics is taking root in Onitsha Province and have their foundations in Onitsha Archdiocese and Awka diocese. This is so because the local ordinaries (Bishops) are huge financial beneficiaries of corrupt politicians.
“There has been widespread belief that the Roman Catholic Church in Anambra state dictated past and present political leaderships in Anambra state for which other denominations complained bitterly.
“One of the recent disgraceful episodes is where one Rev Fr Cajetan Obiekezie of the Catholic diocese of Awka, made a viral video insulting the Executive Governor of Anambra State, Mr Chukwuma Soludo, calling him names and also urged citizens not to vote for his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
“One other priest of the Adoration Ministry Uke, Anambra state was known to have also insulted the governor over trivial matters which did not concern or affect the church.
“There’s one of the priests resident at St Lwanga Catholic Church in Okpoko, Ogbaru local government, Rev Fr Livinus Nnaemelu who takes pride in boasting as an official of the Obedient Movement in Anambra state thereby seeing nothing good in other political parties.
“Today in Anambra state, Peter Obi,a Catholic is fighting Governor Soludo, also a Roman Catholic faithful to overthrow him (Soludo)owing to a division in the church on who is sentimentally closest to the church in terms of material inducements and other benefits to the church.
“With so much money realised from politicians, morality has been thrown to the dogs; priests swim in opulence, moral bankruptcy and impropriety.
The group further accused Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party Peter Obi of using the church to disparage the current Governor Soludo and tribal disaffection under the guise of doing service to the state and country.
Speaking on Peter Obi’s claims of losing his election over impunity, Okpala accused the former Governor of being guiltily of the same allegation as he heralded abuse of power when he held sway as Governor giving examples of how he demolished houses of citizens, non conduct of local government elections, deprivation of workers entitlements among
The group warned that if nothing was done by the Vatican through the intervention of Filipazzi to call the priests to order the situation may escalate and spin out of control to the detriment of the revered prestige of the church.
