Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka, the spiritual director of Adoration Ministry Enugu, Nigeria (AMEN), has revealed where he went to when an allegation that he was missing sparked a protest on Wednesday, May 5.
The cleric who showed up after some hours of the protest said the Bishop of Enugu dioceses, Callistus Valentine Onaga, summoned him for a meeting and planned to close his ministry and keep him for 30 days.
Mbaka said that he was summoned over his recent comments concerning Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and his connection to the presidency.
Speaking on his meeting with the Catholic bishop in Enugu, Mbaka said the church leadership told him he would remain indoors for a period of one month to enable him to pray and meditate over his activities.
The catholic priest said he asked for an opportunity to address his parishioners but was not allowed.
“How can they believe what others say, and they will not believe what the priest is saying? The emphasis is ‘please, let me go to celebrate the mass’, but they said ‘no’. If a priest will request to celebrate mass and they say ‘no’, that means something is wrong,” he said.
According to BBC Pidgin, Mbaka told his congregation that the Bishop later allowed him to go and address the protesting crowd who had flooded the streets of Enugu over the allegation that he was missing.
He noted that things would have got out of hand if he was not within Enugu to quickly show up and address the protesters.
Mbaka expressed gratitude that the protest had not turned violent before he was able to show up to calm the nerves of the protesters.