■ Vow not to leave Nnamdi Kanu’s home
■ Say their persecution will attract religious war
From Okey Sampson, Aba
Lady Ima Hallelujah Nwachukwu is the leader of the Jewish worshippers, who some of her members were arrested by the police in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
In this interview, she spoke about his group, denying that they are terrorists as police would want the world to believe.
While saying that Nnamdi Kanu’s home is their place for the keeping of the Sabbath, she equally warned the Abia State Commissioner of Police not to do anything that would trigger religious war in the state. Excerpts:
Let’s know your name and why you are in Umuahia
My name is Mrs Ima Hallelujah Nwachukwu, leader of the Jewish worshippers in Umuahia. We are in Umuahia to keep the Sabbath, to worship God.
We decided to do that in Nnamdi Kanu’s home because he is a Jewish man, one of the leaders in our kingdom. This palace (Kanu’s house) is our home and we cannot run away from our home. Over 100 of us came from different parts of the country for this Sabbath keeping.
Is it true that while you were observing the Sabbath, police arrested some of you?
Yes, they (police) beat some of our brothers mercilessly in our place of worship and tore their cloths before arresting them. Nine of our members were arrested by the police and tortured.
What did police say was your offence?
They said we are terrorists that we came to terrorise the Commissioner of Police (Anthony Ogbizi). We are not carrying any gun or dangerous weapons, but police in Abia State said that our Kapa and attire frighten them.
They said our attire is the gun we are using to terrorize the commissioner of police. I don’t know when somebody’s attire has become a dangerous weapon that can be used to terrorize the commissioner of police. How can we terrorize the commissioner of police when we don’t know him or his address?
They say we are terrorists, if that is true, how could we have come with our children whom they attacked and some of them are still in the hospital? Can terrorists go to terrorize a place with men of over 90 years? Since we are terrorists, why did they not arrest all of us when we went to the state police command headquarters for the release of our arrested members? I ask this question because we all are in Abia for the same purpose.
Could it be that your people were arrested because you came to Nnamdi Kanu’s home to worship?
Jewish religion, is it a new thing in this country? I think when Nnamdi Kanu was granted bail; the court ruled that one of his sureties must be a Jewish religious leader, that means the court recognises the existence of that religion. The funny part of the whole thing is that when we went to the SCID, a day after the arrest of our members, they said we were no longer terrorists, but surprisingly, the same day, they clamped them into prison.
Would these arrests deter you from accomplishing what brought you to Abia State?
Not at all, at present we do not have any other place of worship except here (Nnamdi Kanu’s home), so, this place will continue to be our place of worship. We have our Synagogue here; it is truly our worship centre. If the police like let them arrest all of us, it will not deter us, but all we want the world to know is that we are not terrorists, but worshippers of Yahweh.
What’s your take on the arrest of your members by the police?
Well, the commissioner of police knows the consequences because what he is attracting is religious war. He tagged us terrorists, he has to prove it, he will prove it. The CP ordered for our arrest because of hatred, anger and envy. But there will be no retreat and no surrender.
What’s your advice to your members?
They should be courageous and not be dismayed for Yahweh Ellohim of Hebrew is with us and we shall conquer at the end.
