Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration
Assembly has been suspended by the Catholic Diocese of Enugu from church
activities for one month.
It was gathered that Mbaka was asked to proceed on suspension
with effect from May 3 after being summoned by Callistus Valentine Onaga, the
diocesan bishop.
PeoplesGazette reports that Bishop Onaga called Mbaka in following
his repeated clashes with President Muhammadu Buhari and warned that his conduct
was smearing the image of the church.
Onaga and other senior reverend fathers of the Enugu Diocese
recognised that Mbaka’s Adoration Ministry as an independent congregation that
does not fall directly under the main church’s control, he could still be
reined in as a priest under the Roman Catholic’s certification.
Church sources said Mbaka’s latest suspension was being viewed as
significant for its undertone, but not the first time the fiery priest would
face administrative action.
“We know people will link this
to his confrontation with Buhari, but he was once demoted from a parish priest
to a deputy under a parish priest,” a church official said.
“He had also been transferred
from bigger parishes to smaller ones for his frequent infractions in the past.”
Recall
that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, OYC raised an alarm on
Wednesday, noting that the renowned Chrisitan cleric’s whereabouts can not be
ascertained at the moment.
They had
claimed that Mbaka was last seen on Tuesday and that every effort to get to him
proof abortive. Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, the President-General of OYC who disclosed
the development in the statement signed by him said: “We have it on good authority
that his aides have neither seen nor heard from him since Tuesday.”
“Calls put to his mobile line
have also remained unanswered; this has now prompted us to issue this alarm as
we would not take it lightly should anything untoward happens to him,” Nnabuike claimed.
However,
when youths took to the streets to protest the disappearance of the
controversial cleric, Father Mbaka resurfaced.
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