From Jude Chinedu, Enugu

The Spiritual Director and Founder of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Nigeria (AMEN), Rev Fr Ejike Mbaka, has recounted what transpired during his sudden disappearance on May 5, 2021.

Mbaka said that the plan was to hack him to death after drugging him, undressing him and parading him among prostitutes.

Though the cleric did not specifically mention those behind the plot, he said that he was at liberty to criticise President Muhammadu Buhari where he was not doing well.

‘When I said that Buhari would be president, I didn’t tell anyone to vote for Buhari. But people were just quoting me out of context. I told you that it was revealed to me that Buhari would be president. That it was revealed to me doesn’t mean that you should vote for him.

‘What it meant was that whether you voted for him or not, Buhari would emerge as president. It’s a vision. I also said that if he began to mess up that I would attack him. He started messing up and I started attacking him. And people were saying that I was insulting the president.’

Mbaka had asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign or be impeached for his failure to handle worsening insecurity and youth unemployment. The presidency swiftly hit back at Mbaka alleging that the cleric was angry because he sought to secure contracts from the Buhari-led government and was denied.

On May 3, the cleric was summoned to the Bishop’s Court but after two days, Mbaka’s followers raised the alarm alleging that the priest has been kidnapped as he had not been seen and his phone lines were switched off.

This led to massive protests which rocked the city and resulted in the vandalisation of the Bishop’s Court and parts of the diocesan headquarters, Holy Ghost Cathedral, Enugu.

Explaining what happened in that incident in his 2022 New Year message during the cross overnight at the Adoration Ground, Emene, Mbaka said the people who caused his disappearance wanted to give him the Nnamdi Kanu treatment.

‘The day you went on a rampage looking for me, they would have killed me that night. The way they took Nnamdi Kanu was what they planned to do to me. They would have picked me up and drugged me and I would be acting under the influence of that drug.

‘But the Holy Spirit already gave me an order on a Sunday night. It is that kind of order that is called the “supernatural mandamus”. The Holy Spirit told me never to park in a place for 20 minutes. You know I was given an order not to come into this adoration ground for 30 days.

‘I was invited for a meeting and on my arrival, I noticed that it was a panel that was sitting about me. It was on that panel that I was ordered not to conduct adoration again for 30 days. They also said that I shouldn’t come into my house for 30 days. I told them that I didn’t have any toiletries, toothbrush or even money to buy them and that I would need to get home to pick some things before going but they refused, and yet I obeyed.

‘But the Holy Spirit told me to be careful with that my obedience and never to park anyhow. I never knew that the Holy Spirit already knew that I was under watch. I parked my car in front of St. Joseph and I went to pray for like 15 to 20 minutes. I never knew they were tracking me that night.

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‘Before the next morning when you people started looking for me, their plan was immediately they picked me up, they would take me to Cubana Junction where they would parade me among prostitutes. They would also show a video where I was frolicking with the prostitutes. The question would have been: what was Mbaka doing in this kind of place?

‘From Cubana, they would have taken me to the one in front of Igboeze where prostitutes also stay. This was where they had planned to undress me. The question would have been, what was he doing there naked.’

The priest disclosed that the grand plan was to take him to Abuja ‘and kill me along the road.’

He withdrew the apologies he gave to Enugu Catholic Bishop, Callistus Onaga, after his disappearance last year, saying the reverse should be the case.

‘I was apologising after everything that happened. But two days ago, I was asking myself, why should I apologise to anyone? I shouldn’t have apologised at all. They should be the ones to apologise to me because they wronged me,’ he said.

‘They should be very careful else they will get the treatment my uncle got for always beating my father before us his children when I was still a little boy.

‘So, I’m begging those who have set out to persecute Mbaka to leave me alone. I’m over obedient (to the authorities of the church). If you ask me to kneel down, I will lie down. But, will my children (members of adoration) watch me lying down? That is the problem. Look at the crowd here (over a hundred thousand worshippers). It is no longer Mbaka that is being persecuted. Nothing is too much to fight for a father.

‘I’m pleading that 2022 should be a year of peace. Fr Mbaka has continued to embrace peace to the extent of mounting the kind of a giant billboard in front of the ministry. The Pope’s picture and all the bishops are there. Someone who is doing all this, do you still think he is quarrelling with anyone?

‘Anyone persecuting me and this Adoration Ministry is persecuting the Holy Spirit. He should be ready to bear any consequences that follow.

‘From the one-room, I was given at Umuchigbo, God has given us a place (Adoration Ministry) he wants us to stay. This ground was an evil forest. I know what I did to remove the various deities in this forest before making it to be inhabitable.

‘People should stop attacking this ministry. It is where Igbos are getting their liberation. It is where souls are liberated.

‘With the over hundred thousand participants in the adoration ground on Friday night, Mbaka said even the Pope would be proud of the ministry and do everything possible to protect it.

‘Why can’t the church appreciate what she has? What kind of fight is this? The worst is that some priests are joining in this rubbish. Priests should not create ‘anti-clericalism’ because the laypeople will soon begin to insult and attack them.’