By Cajetan Mmuta
Hoodlums suspected to members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) on Tuesday disrupted an early morning service when they invaded a Catholic Church in the commercial town of Onitsha, Anambra state.
The incident which occurred at Saint Theresa of Kalkuta Parish in Awada, close to Ukaegbu junction, in Onitsha, caused confusion among worshippers some of who scampered for safety.
One of the worshipers in the church who narrated her experience disclosed that the men armed with dangerous weapons including clubs and fuel stormed the church premises while the morning mass was on.
Some of the worshippers were said to have reached for the exit doors in a stampede in an attempt to escape for their lives.
They had insisted to know from the presiding pried why he was holding a mass on a day their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was going to court.
The alleged response by the priest calmed the enraged IPOB members to leave before the service continued till the end.
The suspected IPOB however engaged the priest, who calmed them down before they left the area.
It was learned that they were told that part of the prayers during the spiritual exercise was for the safe release of the IPOB leader.
However, a tricycle operator was not that lucky as the group out of anger stopped him and set his tricycle on fire even as they beat to a pulp for flouting the sit-at-home directive on residents.
According to the worshipper who did not want her name in print, “This morning I went for the 5:30 am morning mass in my church, St Theresa of Kalkuta Parish in Awada, it is close to Ukaegbu junction; we were halfway into the mass when some group of boys suspected to be members of IPOB entered the church. They were carrying sticks and even fuel. They went straight to the altar and were almost halfway there.”
“They approached our parish priest, Rev Fr Joseph, and asked him why he was celebrating Mass on a day when their master (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) was going to court. They were quite a number of them and were visibly angry. Everybody in the church took to their heels. There would have been a stampede because there were a lot of people in the mass today. I ran to a building close to the church.”
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“Father Joseph told them we were holding mass today to pray for the release of Nnamdi Kanu. He used diplomacy to talk to them, and even asked them if they were really for Ndi Igbo or Against Ndi Igbo? They now said okay, that if so, the people in the church were for them.”
“They now called back everyone to continue the mass that they were now convinced that the church people were Biafrans. Some of us were so afraid that we could not return, so we went home from there. They apologized to the priest and left.”
“The same group went out and saw a tricycle rider. No one knows why the man was outside because, on sit-at-home days, you hardly find a tricycle outside. They beat up the man and burnt his tricycle, and the tricycle is still there now smoking,” she stated.
