…Says killings have a pattern
The youth wing of the Pentecostal Christian community in Nigeria has exploded, ready to fight back those allegedly out to destroy Pentecostalism through set up and blackmail.
To achieve this, the security wing of Pentecostal Christians in Nigeria said in Port Harcourt that it has lined up over 70 top lawyers to go after those who are going after the top leaders of the faith.
This was revealed in Port Harcourt on Thursday, January 25, 2024, by Edward Obumneme Joseph (PhD), president of the Light Bearers Safety and Security Network (Nigeria).
Addressing newsmen after a successful surgery in a private medical centre in Port Harcourt (save A Life Hospital) which he said performed close to a miracle, the cleric said the church has discovered a pattern of attack.
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He said some ladies are groomed and procured to set up father of the faith one after the other. He said some of the church leaders do not know when they step into the traps and next, their photos are everywhere on social media.
Joseph said the lawyers are now to comb the social media networks to take the war back to the alleged plotters.
He said the group would also go after general overseers and other top Pentecostal leaders if found to have actually committed those wild offences. He said the intention is to sanitise the environment but stop those who he said want to take out top Christians, not through the bullet but through public humiliation. He called it a new war on Pentecostalism in Nigeria.
On why he chose a medical centre as venue of the press briefing, Joseph, a lawyer and general overseer of the Freedom Chariot Church, who is also national president of the youth wing of the Christian Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (CPFN), said he was close to death but was saved by a medical facility in Nigeria that performed even better than foreign ones.
He said he had heart attack but that ‘Save a Life’ saved his life by diagnosing him in minutes and in a few hours, the procedure was complete and he walked out. Now, he enthused, he was addressing the world through the press.
Joseph wondered why with all the money budgeted in the healthcare sector, Nigerians were still dieing because hospitals took almost a day to look at an emergency case.
He named some Nigerian families that lost their loved ones at the hospital because of endless delays or that there was no doctor.
He called on the Rivers State governor, Sim Fubara, who he called a youth, to represent well after his Supreme Court victory to blaze a trail in the healthcare sector by replicating in at least all the senatorial zones what the Save A Life Hospital has done in Port Harcourt.
Giving some hint into what he saw, he said the place had the best of equipment, facilities and personnel, but regretted that rules against advertising would not allow the owners to advertise their uniqueness.
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“When I came into Port Harcourt and was referred to Save A Life Hospital, I was thrilled with what I saw; a six-storey building technophlian. I was well taken care of with everything you need in a hospital.
“The hospital has doctors who gave me attention within three minutes and there was an app they told me to open for my home clinic attention. l opened it. With three minutes I was booked for and was given attention through a procedure, an angiogram and series of other procedures.”
He said after all the procedures he was out from the theater within some hours, two days after the treatment he was recovering.
“So many people have died in the hospital because they were not given attention.”
He said he was in a federal hospital at the accident and emergency unit for two days without attention. “Both children and elderly were in the hospital.”
According to him, young people in Nigeria are calling for government to give priority to health.
“I am happy that the visioner of Save A Life Hospital is a youth that we can tell his story and now he is prioritising health in the country.
“We can get the medical attention that we are looking for here, instead of going abroad for treatment.”
He accused Nigerian leaders of looting funds meant to deliver such facilities but preferred to send their wards abroad to get medical wonders. ‘If these funds were ploughed back into the sector, Nigeria would be a medical mecca.”
He urged President Tinubu to give Nigerians what one individual has given to Port Harcourt by adopting the place as a model for public health standards. “Let the Minister of Health drag state commissioners of health to this place and let them see things and models to copy and go home to replicate. This is what the youths are saying. We want the best because our money can afford it.”
The cleric urged the FG to build such facilities for displaced Nigerians in terrorised zones. It was at this point that Joseph countered the sheik, Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, urging President Tinubu to build hospitals and schools for Nigerians, not for bandits.
“I am calling on Commissioners for health, Nigerian Ministry of Health to hold a two-day conference in Port Harcourt or anywhere in the country and discuss on better ways on how hospitals should be run because am thrilled to have this interesting encounter that changed my mind set that Nigeria can successfully do certain things without embarrassment.
“Why is it that an individual can build and equip this edifice for health and organize medical Angel’s as doctors who attends to patience in three minutes.
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“We should have government owned hospitals that equipped with facilities more than individual facilities to save the lives of Nigerians.
“There should be uninterrupted light, water, and other amenities in government owned hospitals.”
He urged media practitioners to create awareness on government priotization of health care delivery to the citizens.
He commended Richard Okoye, the Medical Director of Save A Life Hospital and all the staff members of the hospital for their care services.
He called on government at all levels to replicate the standard service delivery and health facilities in place at the Save A Life Hospital.
Killings have a pattern
Joseph warned that the killings in the north were no longer a mere accident but a careful plan to kill and occupy.
He said his group had uncovered a pattern whereby natives were being systematically eliminated in the middle belt by killers after which alien tribes occupy the area and hoist a new life in those areas. He called on the security agencies to take note of this trend and act now.
Joseph also urged native land owners to resist such attacks because it was more than killing of natives but a grand plan of occupation.
In this light, he said Gumi was not just making careless statements but must be part of the suspected plot to take over the middle belt. He gave Bokkos in Plateau State as a fresh case study, saying the natives are now living in camps while their areas have been taken over by a tribe (name withheld).
Gumi had raised uproars in December 2023 when he called for amenities such as hospitals and schools for bandits as a non-kinetic solution to terrorism in Nigeria.
Gumi, who said the government was adopting old-fashioned ways to fight the insecurity in the country, had urged the government to negotiate with bandits and help them have a future by providing them with necessary amenities.
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He had claimed that spending large sums of money purchasing weapons to combat insurgency was outdated. He had that banditry was a social problem rooted in the long-standing farmer-herder crisis in the country’s northern region, and had suggested that engaging in an honest dialogue with the perpetrators could be instrumental in resolving this menace.
Reacting in Port Harcourt, the Pentecostal security and safety wing leader said: “We are calling on President Bola Tinubu to protect the lives of Nigerians by stopping banditry and terrorism in the country.”
He urged the security agencies to go after the terrorists because their mission was beyond killing. He however commended the military for what he called their uncompromised services to the country.
He urged the president to build hospitals and schools for those displaced and not for bandits. “We carry out various interventions in the issues of welfare and wellbeing of the believers across the nation.”
He commended the military for their uncompromised services to the country. He equally called on Department of State Security (DSS) to arrest Gumi she for calling on President Bola Tinubu to build hospital and school for terrorists.
“We are calling on President Bola Tinubu to protect the lives of Nigerians by stopping banditry and terrorism in the country. DSS should arrest the Islamic cleric, Shriek Gumi for calling on President Bola Tinubu to build schools and hospital for terrorists.
“Terrorism must stop, everybody has the right to live and Gumi cannot be encouraging terrorism. President Tinubu should build hospitals for Nigerians and not for terrorists”, Joseph added.
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Give Betta Edu fair hearing
Joseph urged Nigerians to find some time to give the embattled Minister of Humanitarian Affairs some fair hearing. He said the suspended has been shut out while information against her dominated the airwaves.
He said those who managed to hear her out would find intriguing details that border om how things were being done before she came to the position.
He stated: “In as much as we do not want to stand in for her, let her be given chance to explain her side of the matter. We perceive a plot to blackmail the youth and women to look like not good in positions. That is not true because many youths and women are performing wonders. The owner of this facility is a youth. Fubara is a youth.”
He preached fair hearing for all, saying it would give level-playing ground to all Nigerians and create a nation of justice and peace for all.
He recalled the days when in Jos, people of different faiths ate together and watched over each other during worship. He said he grew up later to see little girls of one faith set ablaze by people of another faith, and that he lost a close friend to religious violence and brazen killing.
The cleric appealed to Nigerians to fight to take back their peace and freedom by saying no to systematic killing by one tribe of other tribes.
