Popular Enugu Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, yesterday called on security agents to beam their searchlights on the coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and its National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, over their threat to drag him to court concerning his New Year prophesy on plot to assassinate President Muhammadu Buhari.
The rights group had asked the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBCN) to sanction Rev. Father Mbaka within 21 days “for abandoning his sacred vocation and deviating into the mundane roadside career of politics, while he hid under the canopy of his priestly vocation, failing which he will be dragged to the Holy Father Pope Francis.”
However, reacting through his media aide, Barr. Maximus Ugwuoke, the cleric said it beats every imagination why HURIWA should single out his prophesy concerning Buhari’s life, stressing that such meant the rights group should be considered by investigators as the prime suspects.
Ugwuoke, who is Media Chief, Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria, stated that “one vital question Nigerians should not fail to ask is why this group of democratic miscreants is not perturbed by all other Prophesies of Fr Mbaka this year except the plot against Mr President.”
He said the ministry had noted with great disappointment the statement credited to the Human Rights group in a section of the media threatening to drag Fr Mbaka to Pope if the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria fails to reprimand him and stop him from actively associating with politicians.
While describing HURIWA’s statement as careless, he asked: “Are they guilty or privy to the plot which the man of God had exposed? The labourious manner with which they attacked the prophetic message in an attempt to filibuster and water it down betrays their innocence on this issue and this should make them prime suspects in the list of the nation’s intelligent Security Surveillance.”
On the necessity of the prophesy, he stressed that “we love our President and his life means much to us, especially at this point of the nations’ history when he is fighting the most dread wars in the world, the hydra headed war against corruption and insurgency.
“Besides Fr Mbaka’s prophesy of the plans of the enemies against him, no good thinking citizen of this country would believe that the victims of Mr President’s war against corruption would be smiling at him. That is why we should not relent in praying for Mr President and will never spare any one or group of persons that may want to distract Fr Mbaka and his commitment to the Spiritual welfare of this nation.
“If the Constitution which gave every citizen of this country the right to Worship did not prohibit him from declaring the message he receives from the God he worships, we then wonder why a Priest of God and a Citizen of this country should be threatened for exercising his constitutional right. A situation where the Fundamental Human Rights which is tenet of the ideals of democracy is bastardized by an acclaimed Human Right group that is meant to protect same is indeed worrisome and makes mockery of nomenclature. It is for this reason that we believe that such a threat against Fr Mbaka can only come from a colossus of political agents of destabilization, and rabble-rousers masquerading as an NGO and a pro democracy group.
“We view their threat as a likelihood of infringement to exercise Fr Mbaka’s right to freedom of religion, association and expression which section 46 of this country and enabling legal frameworks gives us the latitude to seek redress. We therefore call on the group to withdraw that threat forthwith or face the legal consequence.”
He maintained that, “The Constitution of this land by virtues of Section 38(1) respects universal right to freedom of religion and to manifest and propagate same either or in community with others in public or private. The same grand norm guarantees freedom of expression in Section 39. If the Constitution which gave every citizen of this country the right to Worship did not prohibit him from declaring the message he receives from the God he worships, we then wonder why a Priest of God and a Citizen of this country should be threatened for exercising his constitutional right.
“A situation where the Fundamental Human Rights which is tenet of the ideals of democracy is bastardized by an acclaimed Human Right group that is meant to protect same is indeed worrisome and makes mockery of nomenclature. It is for this reason that we believe that such a threat against Fr Mbaka can only come from a colossus of political agents of destabilization, and rabble-rousers masquerading as an NGO and a pro-democracy group.
“We view their threat as a likelihood of infringement to exercise Fr Mbaka’s right to freedom of religion, association and expression which section 46 of this country and enabling legal frameworks gives us the latitude to seek redress. We therefore call on the group to withdraw that threat forthwith or face the legal consequence.
“We know of the utterances by many leaders of different churches at the beginning of this year who in exercise of their religious freedom predicted so many things such as plane crash, bank robbery, Bank collapse, natural disasters etc, no one threatened to sanction them. The question is, why should Fr Mbaka’s prophesy always attract venomous criticism by some Nigerian especially by the so called Christians who will never talk about the manifest miracles of God through him and his consummate charitable life? Was the fulfillment of his prophesy of President Buhari’s victory last year which earned him and the ministry the highest media attack ever not yet enough lesson to Nigerians that Fr Mbaka is indeed a prophet of God and a gift to this nation?
“We recall that many years ago precisely in 1998 when Fr Mbaka used to hold the Adoration Ministry programme at Government Technical College (GTC) Enugu, On Wednesday, the night of 3rd June 1998, he started raising alarm that the Holy Spirit has disclosed to him that the then Nigerian Military Head of State, Late Gen Sani Abacha was going to die. Instead of people coming to ask what shall be done to prevent the president from dying, they started attacking Fr Mbaka. He ran away to Awhum Monastery and from there he came to the Church on Sunday the 7th June 2008 and declared that the Holy Spirit says ‘By this time tomorrow, President Sani Abacha will be no more’.
“The whole parish council gathered around his house to caution him to stop such prophesy. Exactly by that time the following day, Monday the 8th of June 2008, General Sani Abacha was reported dead. Fr Mbaka had told the congregation that he never wished Abacha dead but he saw it in the spiritual. He was particularly worried that no one believed him, and regretted that he was in an era where people no longer respect prophetic life. An era where people believe in lies and fairy tells and what they read in media but not the warning of men of God who tells them what he hears from the spirit world.
“Last year when Fr Mbaka prophesied the defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan, many Christian including notable clergymen branded him a false prophet and clamoured for his sanction. Now that the prophesy came true with Buhar’s victory why shouldn’t the acclaimed sanctions be meted to those clergies whom the manifestation of Fr Mbaka’s prophesy has proved to be the real false prophets?. No one seems to think about this.
“It is unfortunate that some men of God and so called Christians either for lack of prayer points or out of chronic envy and jealously now make “Fr Mbaka” the topic for exhortation in their gatherings. This is also explains why the recent speculations on his transfer has taken the place of sermon in some churches and even made national news headline even when there is no official communication of such.
“Those who attack Fr Mbaka for declaring what his God told him to his congregation only want to make a point, either that their own god is dumb or that God no longer speak in this generation. They should desist from infesting the good Nigerian Christians with such heresy. This is why we do not feel threatened by the threat of those threatening to drag Fr Mbaka to Pope since the Pope himself, whose prophetic anointing runs in Fr Mbaka is indeed the grand mouthpiece of the same God that speaks through Fr Mbaka in the entire Christendom.
“How can Fr Mbaka’s attackers in their wisdom or lack of it imagine that the authorities of the same Catholic Church that trains her priests including Fr Mbaka to be verse in Philosophy, Critic of Contemporary values, theology, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science etc and ordained him a priest, a PROPHET and king should be used to threaten Fr Mbaka for exercising what she imparted in him?
“Those whose headache is the manner of Fr Mbaka’s prophesy should know that even in the scriptures Jeremiah and Isaiah were not gifted alike. Moses and Elijah were not gifted alike. Samuel and Nathan were not gifted alike. They were all God’s prophet with distinct callings.”
