Enugu Catholic Adoration Ministry has said it would hold President Goodluck Jonathan's government responsible if anything untoward happens to its Spiritual Director, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka. Consequently, it has urged the Federal Government to provide security for Fr Mbaka, raising the alarm that his life was in danger. The media officer of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Mr. Ike Maximus Ugwuoke, a lawyer, made the call yesterday in Enugu at a press briefing, warning that the Adoration Ministry would not take it kindly if anything happened to its leader. According to him, Fr Mbaka had cried out that he had been marked for death before the presidential election on March 28. "With the stage the level of threat to Fr Mbaka's life has reached, we call on the Nigeria Police and indeed, all security agencies in this country, to protect the life of our spiritual director. We may resort to enforce his fundamental right to life against President Jonathan's government as guaranteed under Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, which confers on Nigerian citizens, the power to secure the enforcement of their human rights even in events of likelihood of any infringements. This is apparently due to the fact that the right to life can only be enjoyed by the living," he said.
Ugwuoke said the Jonathan government has a duty to protect and guarantee Fr Mbaka's life, stressing that "as adorers, Nigerians, the Catholic Church and indeed, the international community will readily point fingers at him in the event of any misfortune against Fr Mbaka or Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria." The Ministry also issued a statement entitled: "Jonathan wants me dead before the 2015 election," which read in part:
"It is with a deep sense of concern that we are constrained to make this statement on the continued threat to the life of Rev Fr Ejike Mbaka over his 2015 New Year message entitled, 'From Good luck to Badluck'. "The issue of threat to Fr Mbaka's life became a public knowledge that it formed the headline of The Sun news publication of January 5, 2015, 'My Life in Danger'. The Sun reported, 'Enugu Catholic priest and the founder of Adoration Ministry, Rev Fr. Ejike Mbaka yesterday, raised the alarm that he has been receiving threat messages following his New Year eve message'. "Two days later, January 7, 2015, Vanguard also reported that the Enugu State Police Command had refuted claims by Fr Mbaka that his life was in danger. It dismissed Fr. Mbaka's outcry over threat to his life as baseless." The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ebere Amarizu , DSP, was quoted as saying, 'We do not have any report by Fr. Mbaka over threat to his life. We have not received any complaint from him'. "On the backdrop of the above, one begins to wonder whether the alarm raised by Fr. Mbaka on an alleged plot to kill him was a mere rhetoric as the police had made it to appear merely because there has not been an official report to the police over it. "Absence of a formal report on threat to one's life doesn't negate the reality of such threat more so when the victim had made a public outcry on this issue. To argue otherwise is akin to denying the fact of death in the face of a man's corpse merely because there is no certificate certifying his death." The statement noted that 'Rev Fr. Mbaka had consistently in his public outings, been raising alarm over threat to his life and strange calls and messages threatening to assassinate him."
The last of this was his assertion that assassins from the Presidency had been engaged to exterminate his life before the 28th March 2015 Election. "This was coming after he had made a public statement on 8th March 2015 that in the presence of some named witnesses, he rejected a parcel of money sent to him by the First Lady through the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and that the rejected money was with the latter.
"The issue of threat to Fr Mbaka's life has become worrisome that even at his last Friday's adoration Programme held on 13th March 2015, he did not turnout in his usual car due to security alert he had of his planned assassination on that day. Yesterday strange hoodlums in a black Hilux besieged his parish compound but they left disappointed when they could not see him. "Wherever and whoever this threat is coming from, we state that there are strong and compelling circumstances pointing towards the fact that Fr. Mbaka's latest attacks were stemming from his said 2015 New Year message which was not favourable to the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration. "We also wish to state that before the 2015 New Year message of Fr .Mbaka, he used to pray for Jonathan's government and never raised any alarm on threats to his life but after the 31st night message which he was inspired to preach by the Holy Spirit he has been making a public outcry of threat to his life. This is a clear case of a witch crying in the night and one's child is found dead in the morning.
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