Adoration Ministry claims armed gunmen opened fire on Reverend Mbaka in assassination attempt

CONTROVERSIAL clergyman Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka has alleged that there was a recent attempt on his life in Enugu with several unidentified gunmen opening fire on him on Emene Road in the state capital.

Reverent Mbaka, the spiritual director of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, has been in the news a lot recently after a public altercation with former Anambra State governor Peter Obi. At a recent harvest festival, Reverend Mbaka cursed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice presidential candidate, saying he would fail politically for not making a donation towards his church.

Following the outrage over the comments, Reverend Mbaka has apologised for his words, saying he did not mean any offence. Now several Adoration Ministry officials including Chief Aka Emmanuel, the president of National Adoration Family; Chief Okolo Godwin, the president of Adoration Fathers’ Associations Worldwide; Mrs Ann Aligwe, the president, of Adoration Mothers’ Association Worldwide; Chukwu Agoziem, the president of Adoration Youths’ Association Worldwide and Ike Maximus Ugwuoke, the church's media chief, said the development came to them as a rude shock and utter surprise.

They added: “It is with rude shock and utter surprise that we received the report of the attempted assassination plot of the spiritual director of Adoration Ministry by some unknown gunmen who fired gun shots at him on his way along Emene road Enugu. This incident has added to several other assassination plots targeted at Father Mbaka since after the first plot was carried out on him on his way from the bishop’s house where he had gone to answer an impromptu call during the regime of Governor Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State.

“This assassination plot against Father Mbaka is coming barely a few days after the 2018 harvest and bazaar of the ministry where he had come under a massive media attack for asking Peter Obi, the PDP vice presidential candidate who attended the programme, to make public his support or donation for the church project of the ministry. Many supporters of Peter Obi and even clergies have misconstrued this as embarrassing to him and to the Catholic Church and this has consequently given rise to the statement issued by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN)."

They added that the last time Father Mbaka raised an alarm over threats to exterminate him was in early 2015 when he faced a similar persecution by some church hierarchy and the PDP government following his December 31 prophecy of the imminent defeat of former president Goodluck Jonathan. However, the Enugu State Police Command said it has no report of any such or assassination attempt.