The January 30 transfer of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka from Christ the King Parish,GRA, where he had been the parish priest for 20 years to Our Lady of Rosary, Emene Enugu- is still causing ripples in many quarters.

In his former parish, Mbaka had built the Adoration Ministry, which is a prayer-ground of sorts to thousands of Christians from various churches.

Following the transfer of Mbaka, many had criticised the Catholic Church of having ulterior motives for making the cleric move to another parish.

While the dist is yet to settle on the allegation from the South East chapter of the All Progressives Congress, the Members of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu Nigeria (AMEN) have accused the Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Most Rev. Calistus Onaga, of being pressured by the Peoples Democratic Party and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to transfer Father Mbaka.

In a statement signed by Kingsley Eze, Igbo Youth Kaduna; Sunday Ukam, Enugu Adorer; Adedije Wale, Osun State Adorer; and twenty others- the AMEN members stated that Bishop Onaga was acting a script aimed at crippling Father Mbaka.

“What Bishop Michael Eneja saw and allowed, Bishop Gbuji protected and watered but Bishop Onaga uprooted in a most barbaric and despondent manner. How? Sometime ago, he gave an impromptu directive that the Ministry should stop the Wednesday all-night Adoration prayer, which Fr Mbaka complied with. The directive would have blown out the fire of the ministry and brought it to a painful end if not for the intervention of the Holy Spirit.”

“Is Bishop Onaga angry that Fr Mbaka is prophesying? Was it not from the seat of the Bishop he occupies that Fr Mbaka was ordained a priest, a king and prophet? How then can the Church become worried when he begins to prophesy? Does the Church contradict itself? “We are not happy with the manner the wind of the transfer blew and many of us feel bad about it. Fr Mbaka is holding the brake for some of us and we implore him to keep pressing the brake and hold the steering firmly because all eyes are on him.”

“Some of us who are not from Enugu Diocese didn’t believe it that Fr Mbaka was transferred in this manner. The transfer is not our problem but the manner it was done. It struck us like thunder and we have been inundated with calls from our people residing outside the country, UK, Spain, USA ,etc.”

“We are dumbfounded and we can’t help asking- Is this the fight of faith that the diocese is enjoined to fight? Is this how the diocese wants to win souls? While the true lovers of the Catholic Church are thinking of how to protect Fr Mbaka as gift to the Catholic Church, his own diocese just exposed him and left him without shelter.”

“Most Nigerians know that the uncommon silence of Bishop Onaga over Fr Mbaka’s prophesy of the defeat of the Goodluck Jonathan’s PDP-led government by President Muhammadu Buhari was not really for nothing. Barely few weeks before the posting, the voice of a faction of the Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, a socio-cultural group that fell out with the party was heard barking at Fr Mbaka to ‘shut up’ over his prophesies. And now comes the posting done in such a manner as to really shut Fr Mbaka up.”

“A source close to Bishop Onaga disclosed to us that the Bishop said he transferred Fr Mbaka out of pressure from Ohanaeze and PDP. The posting is not Holy Ghost oriented but PDPnized and Ohanaezenized, and any cleric be him Pastor, Bishop or Cardinal that supported this is enemy of the Holy Spirit.”

“How can the Bishop just wake up and tell Fr Mbaka to pack into a parish that cannot comfortably contain two priests as a third priest? Is he meant to punish him? Is that the way the Catholic Church in the diocese is meant to reward and encourage him for the glory and honour he had brought to the Catholic Church in this part of the divide and for his unalloyed humility and total obedience to the Church? Is that the way the Church is meant to reward him for taking care of the flock of the Catholic Church both within and outside the dioceses?.”

Kolapo Olapoju