The latest evidence of tomfoolery associated with strange beliefs is the reported action of some followers of a certain Pastor Noah Ade Abraham of the Christ High Commission Ministry, also known as Royal Christ Assembly, in Ekiti State. According to reports, the pastor asked his followers to pay N310,000, if they were interested in flying to heaven with him after rapture. He reportedly claimed he got the authority from God to do what he did and that he also did it because he noticed that his members’ troubles were increasing. Their take-off point will be the church premises in Omuo-Oke Ekiti, in Ekiti-East Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
Abraham reportedly started his church from Kabba, Kogi State, in 2019. He was said to have moved to Kaduna and from there to Ekiti State. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State chapter, has denied the man though. The CAN chairman, Rev. Joseph Hayab, said though Abraham’s offer of a ticket to heaven was cheaper than the ransom Kaduna bandits asked from their victims, CAN had not found anyone who knew the location of the church in Kaduna.
Already, the pastor reportedly kept about 40 people in the church in preparation for the rapture. Some of his followers have allegedly sold their belongings, waiting for the day Jesus would come and take them to heaven.
I don’t know if there is any first class section in this particular flight to heaven. But what I know is that the amount of money charged for this trip is very competitive. You can’t find it cheaper anywhere. Flying from one country to another doesn’t come cheap, how much more going to a place like heaven, the ultimate destination. I also suspect that passengers who may have fully booked this flight will enjoy the best of in-flight menu. Amala and ewedu soup will be an appetizer. The Ekiti State police command has since taken Abraham to court for false pretense and intent to defraud. A chief magistrate’s court in Ado Ekiti granted him bail and adjourned the matter to May 24 for mention.
Pastor Abraham is not alone in this type of perfidious act. Recall that on November 18, 1978, over 900 followers of a certain Jim Jones, who was the leader of a California-based church/cult named People’s Temple, committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Jones had moved with many of his followers to Guyana in 1977 when the media began to ask questions about his operations in California. He was said to have often humiliated, beaten and brainwashed his members into signing over their possessions to his church. A large percentage of his followers were African-Americans.
Things turned awry when, on November 17, 1978, a United States Congressman, Leo Ryan, travelled to Jonestown to investigate certain allegations of abuses against Jones and his followers. The following day, Ryan and his entourage were to return to the United States. But they were attacked by Temple members at the airstrip from where they were to depart. Five people, including Ryan and three journalists, were killed in that attack. Shortly after, Jones activated his suicide plan by asking members to drink cyanide-laced beverage. They obeyed him and the rest is now history. Jones himself was said to have died of a possibly self-inflicted gunshot wound in the head.
In one of my interventions on this page earlier this year, I did mention some other strange things people do in the name of God. In South Africa, for instance, a certain pastor, in 2014, asked his congregants to feed on grass as a way of bringing them closer to God. They blindly did as directed. Another South African self-styled prophet, Paseka Motsoeneng, had once claimed to have taken a tour of heaven, where he took pictures with his smart phone. To see the pictures, his church members were required to pay some huge sums of money.
In Islam, some people chant Allahu Akbar (God is great) while committing all manner of atrocities. Terrorists who kidnap, torture and kill innocent people chant it while committing their evil act. To them, even if they die in the process, they are heaven-bound and God will reward them.
In traditional religion, some native doctors deceive gullible people with fake charms some of which, they believe, have the power to even transform them to cockroaches in the face of danger. It was this strong belief in the efficacy of our charms that prompted former President Olusegun Obasanjo to advocate using African juju to fight white supremacists in the heyday of apartheid in South Africa. I wouldn’t know why Obasanjo’s hypothesis was not followed through. All I know is that apartheid crumbled because of some powers outside our juju firepower.
Africa is not called the Dark Continent for nothing. In Europe, America and even Asia, most people use their talents to create and invent things that positively transform their societies. When mobile telephone came to Nigeria in 2001, Nokia 3310 was the rave in town. Today, that phone is only good for the museum. Even before the advent of mobile telephone, we were all used to going to Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) offices to queue up just to make telephone calls. Technology has changed all that. Soon, electric cars will displace the fuel guzzlers we currently parade around as wonders on wheels.
Nigeria and indeed Africa will remain backward if we don’t change our mindset. I have come to realise that this thing called common sense is not common after all. For anybody to believe, no matter the level of indoctrination, that he can be taken to heaven with some wads of naira means we still have a long way to go. It calls for serious introspection among our people. Perhaps, before anybody establishes any church or mosque and calls himself pastor or imam, such a person needs to be subjected to psychological test to ascertain his state of well-being physically and spiritually. We can never move forward as a nation, if we continue to harbour such charlatans in our republic.
A poser to Anambra police command
On March 15, 2022, one Dubem Okonkwo, 45, a member of Tricycle Owners’ Association of Nigeria (TOAN), Awka branch, was reportedly arrested by the police at Unizik Junction park, Awka, Anambra State. Later, the state Commissioner of Police, Echeng Eworo Echeng, was said to have paraded Okonkwo with some other suspects. The
Police Public Relations Officer, Ikenga Toochukwu, had released a statement indicating that a cult group had launched an attack on Unizik vilgilante group at Miracle Junction, Awka. He said police operatives succeeded in demobilizing the gang and recovering a cache of weapons, including two AK-47 rifles earlier stolen from the two policemen murdered on December 14, 2021.
Since that arrest and parade, the story has become twisted. Okonkwo’s wife, Ebere Okonkwo, 28, told a national newspaper that she was yet to see her husband. Every effort of the woman and her family to trace Dubem has not yielded any fruit. She said the police told her that her husband was a suspected informant to cultists. The police PRO had directed her to the defunct Awkuzu Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on several occasions, but she and her lawyers were denied access. They went to the State Criminal Investigation Department, but no clue of the man there. The family, through their lawyer, also wrote to Echeng, requesting to see the detainee, all to no avail. Mrs. Okonkwo has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Inspector-General of Police and good-spirited Nigerians to help her and her little daughter to locate her husband. The family is planning to approach the court soon. Could this be another case of extra-judicial killing? Anambra State Police Command should help in resolving this riddle by producing the detainee, dead or alive.
Re: APC’s N100m presidential ransom
Dear Casy, Eleanor Roosevelt once said, and I quote: “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” To use your head refers to being sensible, being of deep thoughts about the implications of your actions or inactions to yourself. To use your heart refers to being considerate or compassionate in your actions or inactions to people. The Iroko tree height of APC’s N100m presidential ransom does not reflect any of the statements above as it does not take cognisance of our harsh socio-economic realities. Their action is, rather, a demonstration of the height of heartlessness, insensitivity and desperation by some ‘cash-and-carry’ Heavyweights within the party who, at all costs, plot to dislodge the intellectually and morally qualified so as to pave the way for them to grab the diadem seamlessly. May APC be informed that should they give their ticket to a political turncoat who will further our anguish post-2023 via misrule, then the principle of ‘Demand and Supply’ shall apply as Nigerians shall but have choice of migrating to another party, thanks to BVAS, which has reduced rigging to the lowest ebb.
– Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731
Asking a presidential aspirant to pull out N100m just for forms is heart-rending! One’s first thought may be an avenue of sifting the contenders from the avalanche of pretenders. To others, there may be a thousand reasons for this chilling demand. It’s not just an APC affair: this all millionaire game also cuts across the PDP. But what is the actual Eighth Wonder is the fact that within the millionaire club are also a few others who can dole out a billion naira for the same reason. Yet, these are also the very aspirants whose forms are reportedly said to have been bought for them by their acolytes or admirers. What a huge fraud! There are many Nigerians out there who have something upstairs but have been technically knocked out by the N100m killer punch. Personally, I am ‘eminently qualified’ to govern this country and fix most of its age-long problems, which are basically tribalism, corruption, insecurity, poor power supply, unemployment and our ever-dwindling economy. But the N100m ransom has not only held me hostage: I have also been technically knocked out.
– Edet Essien Esq, Cal South, 08037952470
Casmir, APC and PDP should be rechristened ‘APC/PDP Bazaar Ventures Ltd’! It beggars belief, that, in a country where two women engaged in a do-or-die battle over N500 debt in the street, some Nigerians who are ‘featherweights’ with little or no chance of getting the tickets are also picking the N40m and N100m nomination forms. It is unfortunate because, ultimately, it is the public that will pay back via the treasury that will be looted in compensation for their ‘financial investments’.
– Mike, Mushin, Lagos, +2348161114572
Dear Casmir, ours is a faithless and unpatriotic society. Cash and Carry politics reigns in our democracy and Cash and Carry salvation is preached by Clergy/Clerics. It’s unfortunate that valuable citizens are mainly from the middle and low class so party flags are likely to elude them unless INEC intervenes to slash cost of forms.
– Cletus Frenchman, Enugu, +234 909 538 5215
Truth of the matter is that APC hiked their nomination fee for N100m to scare some people from contesting for President.
– Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, +2348062887535