Emma Amaize and Sam Eyoboka
30 November 2008
Robbers unleashed terror on a Warri based church, penultimate Friday, killing four persons and carting away valuables. IN the early hours of Friday, November 21, men of the underworld did a most unholy thing in the oil city of Warri, Delta State. They invaded God's Kingdom Society (GKS), aka The Church of the Living God, with headquarters at Salem City, killed four persons in cold blood, two of them, ministers of the gospel, Brother S.E. Evueh and Brother O.R. Dada. The other two were a laity member, who apparently came to spend the night in the sanctuary of the Living God and a security guard, Kingsley. Besides the blood-cuddling murder, the brigands robbed the children of God, including their guests, of money and valuables at gunpoint after scaring the night-time out of them.
For 130 minutes, that is two hours,15 minutes, the robbers, numbering about seven, according to the police, held the GKS community hostage. Members of the church who played unwilling host to the intruders, however, swore they numbered between 15 and 20 and they shot at random, as they moved from one block to the other, robbing the residents with no scrap of fear.
GKS Headquarters, Warri.
In the book of Malachi, chapter3, verse 8, Prophet Malachi, the last of a number of divinely inspired men, who, over a period of a 1000 years, foretold the first advent of Jesus Christ, asked the question, "Will a man rob God?" The Almighty Himself, who put the words in his mouth, answered the riddle thus, "Yet, you have robbed me!," and went ahead to capture the bewilderment of man concerning His retort this way, "But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?"
His words: "In tithes and offerings," and, in this case, God was robbed. But it is even more sacrilegious in the sense that the robbers who raided the Warri church did not only fail to pay their own tithes to God in order for Him to open the windows of heaven for them, they opted to steal the tithes and offerings that were already in His storehouse and, to worsen the bad situation, they flouted God's law of "Thou shall not kill," by killing His anointed ones.
If anyone is happy about the ugly episode of November 21, it is Satan, who, according to the book of John, chapter 10, verse10, is a thief that came "not only to steal, and to kill, but to destroy." Belial, the principality or evil angel who loves to destroy people and see them die, whose main objective is to cause war, and death, Magog, the god of war, who works with the former to cause bloodshed and provide blood for the demon world, must also be salivating over their exploits.
But the president of the GKS, Brother Emmanuel Aighalua, who should know better by virtue of his ecclesiastic authority, told Sunday Vanguard that, contrary to the plan of Satan, the church was not ignorant of his devices and is not afraid of he, "who can only destroy the flesh", but believe muscularly in Jesus Christ, "who came that they may have life and have it more abundantly by His death and resurrection."
Investigations by Sunday Vanguard showed that the church was thrown into mourning within the first 24 hours of the incident but, as soon as it dawned on the worshippers that the attack was a design by the enemy to destroy them, postpone and even abandon its 2008 Feast of Tabernacles, scheduled for December 14, they shook off the lethargy and resolved to become more zealous in the work of God.
Publicity secretary of the church, Brother Benedict Hart, in a press statement, hours after the impudent invasion, noted, "In the meantime, Salem City is wearing a mournful look as members of the church and sympathizers continue to troop into the compound to sympathize with the victims.
The state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has already called the GKS president, Brother O.E. Aighalua, to express his condolences and sympathies to the church over the incident. Calls have been coming from members and non-members of the church from different parts of the world to commiserate with the church over the tragic incident."
But by Monday, November 24, when Sunday Vanguard visited Salem City, the gloom that was on the faces of some worshippers the previous day when Aighalua delivered the soul-stirring sermon, asking them not to be ignorant of the devices of the enemy, who had come to sow a seed of doubt and question their trust in God, as he did to Job in the Bible, gave way to hope and confidence in the power of the Almighty to fight and deliver them from the antics of the evil one.
How they struck: Hart, in the statement announcing the robbery, said: "Dare-devil armed robbers early this morning besieged Salem City, Warri, the headquarters of God's Kingdom Society (GKS), killing two ministers of the church, a laity member and a security guard. No fewer than 15 to 20 heavily armed robbers invaded the expansive compound at about 2.00 a.m., shooting indiscriminately and robbing residents in various blocks of the compound.
In the process, they killed two ministers of the church (names withheld) and a middle-aged male member of the church who came in to spend the night as a guest in one of the blocks in the compound. The wife of one of the senior ministers of the church received head injuries from shrapnel that flew in various dimensions as the robbers blasted her room key with their gun in order to force the door open.
"The robbers", the GKS spokesman went on, "raided the houses of eight of the residents and were insistently asking for money. They gave no heed to the pleas that the ministers had no money to give, as they are not paid salaries. The victims parted with all sorts of valuables, including cash, handsets, jewellery and wristwatches and so on.
The robbers left at about 4.15 a.m. through the fence at the back of the church compound, having cut the spiral wire that was used to secure the concrete wall between the GKS and College of Commerce, Warri. The police later came to see things for themselves and to begin investigations into the incident. The bodies of the dead have been taken to the mortuary while the injured persons are receiving treatment."
Bloodshed: The killing of the ministers, laity member and a guest was the first time blood was being shed in the compound since it was founded in October, 1934 by the late Saint Gideon Meriodere Urhobo, who forsook the gods of his fathers and began as early as his school days to study the Holy Bible and resigned his appointment as a third-class clerk and telegraphist at the Posts and Telegraphs Department when he was baptized by the Holy Spirit to establish the GKS. Sunday Vanguard was told that before now, what the members of the church were used to were petty thieves that robbed in the neighbourhood and people come in and go freely out of the premises because it is a house of God and it was assumed that no sane man would want to invade such a place.
And so when the bandits stormed the sanctuary, November 21, the church members were shocked beyond words at the sophistication of the weapons of death brought by the gangsters. "Not even during the war when the soldiers came here in search of Igbo people did the church witness such a sadistic display," Hart asserted.
The death of the GKS members was not, however, the first time Christians have been killed in Warri. Bandits have, several times, invaded churches in Warri and other parts of Delta State and killed men of God. Robbers go on killing spree in Nigeria. Some months ago, the Christian community and the Nigeria Police in Delta State bore the brunt of armed robbers who shot dead a Catholic priest and two mobile policemen in separate armed robbery attacks in the state. The attacks happened at Isiokolo, Ethiope East Local Government Area and Orhuwhorun, Udu LGA.
Our source said that the two mobile policemen were killed by the same gang of robbers who had earlier shot dead the Catholic priest just in front of Isiokolo Council secretariat and adjacent to a magistrate court in the area. The priest, identified as Revered Father John-Mark Ikpiki, was on his way to Isiokolo, where he was to mediate in an accident case involving a worker with a Catholic Church owned magazine, Messenger of Peace. The source said that the armed bandits shot the priest point blank on the forehead and thereafter dragged him out of his car with registration number EH 447 SMK, and made away with it.
The incident was said to have happened some kilometres from the Isiokolo Police Station and the magistrate court which was yet to sit as the time the robbers stormed the area. It paralysed activities in the court and the gun scare caused a stampede at the premises. Workers and visitors were said to have fled the court through the back door. The five-man gang, according to the source, later abandoned the car they came in and made away with the priest's car. The cleric, aged 43, was, until his death, the Parish Priest of St Ambrose Catholic Church, Ekpan and the director of communication for the Warri Diocese.
Reacting at the Holy Martyrs of Uganda Seminary, Effurun, where all the priests in Warri Catholic Diocese had gathered over the killing, the archbishop of the Benin Catholic Province and administrator of the Warri Diocese, Rev. Fr. Richard Burke, expressed rude shock at the incident and condoled the family of the deceased and parishioners. He said: "My immediate reaction is one of deep shock, profound sadness, grief.
My heart goes out to the family members of late Father John Mark Ikpiki and also to all my Catholic brothers and priests. It is with a deep sense of shock and grief. My heart also goes out to the members of St. Ambrose Parish, his colleagues and associates in Veritas Communication which is the communication organ of the Archdiocese".
Communal life: It was easy for the robbers that invaded GKS to penetrate the compound because it is a free place and mainly an abode for the ministers and their families. They live a communal life under a unique setting, as it was in the days of the early apostles (Acts 2:44-47; 4: 34-37). The GKS is a unique church organization for the fact that the ministers are not paid salaries, they only get allowances as the Lord provides.
However, all their needs are taken care of from a central purse. It is for this reason that ministers of the church do not have private banks accounts. Specifically, the GKS membership consists of the Lord's ministry (ministers and their families) and the laity, all carrying out their roles as laid down in the Holy Bible.
Security: The GKS maintain, its own security with security guard at the gate mainly to screen those coming into the compound. The ministers also keep watch in turn in the night, as the population began to expand and things started changing in the world.
Of course, they know that except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman watches in vain, so their ultimate trust is in the protection of the God Almighty. But about 10 years ago, it was gathered there was a security problem over a space behind the church, which had become a thorough fare for strangers.
The church later conceded the space and allowed a neighbouring academic institution to fence and use the space as a football field, but the threat still remained. However, it was that potent, as even during the Warri crisis, people sought refuge in Salem City and none of the warring ethnic groups carried their battle to the sanctuary. The church donated relief materials to the victims of the crisis, as a way of showing love and in the spirit of being a brother
's keeper.
With the latest incident, it is obvious that the leadership of the GKS will think of how to beef up its internal security in no distant time. A source said the matter had not been officially tabled but, definitely, security in the compound would be strengthened. A source said the bandits acted on information from a supposed informant that a member of the GKS just returned from abroad with gold and other valuables and they came to the compound to dispossess the member of the treasure. On entering the premises, it was not easy to locate their target, so they started breaking into each house, forcing the residents to surrender their valuables and money.
Conflicting reports: While the police said the GKS guard, Kingsley, shot at one of the bandits and inflicted injury on him, which provoked the hoodlums to become vicious and shot the two ministers that came out to find out what was amiss in the compound, having been rudely jolted by the staccato of gunshots, one of the victims said the guard did not fire at the bandits and that he was dragged on the ground by the robbers who tied his legs and hands and later shot dead because he was shouting "thief, thief, thief". Also, the police said the gang, while escaping, shot a vigilante guard, Dickson, at Ogedengbe Street by Essi College. But the church identified the fourth person that was killed as a laity member, who came to spend the night as a guest.
Arrest: The police at A Division, Warri, led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Superintendent Paddy Ogon, have arrested five persons in connection with the matter and recovered a cut-to-size locally made gun that was abandoned by the robbers who fled through the back of the premises. The police are bent on recovering all the weapons used during the operation but its efforts at making a big haul when it took the gang's arrested armoury keeper to their hideout proved abortive, as one of the members of the gang that is at large had relocated the arms to an unknown destination before the police got there.
Policemen in the Division have intensified the manhunt for the fleeing bandits and were keeping their eyes on the black spots along Igbudu and Merogun areas of Warri to checkmate the underworld men in the oil city. Ogon told Sunday Vanguard that the police were investigating the GKS incident but declined to shed light, saying, "I don't want anything that will jeopardize our investigations."
Victims narrate ordeal: A minister, Brother Eric Okoh, who narrowly escaped death alongside members of his family, told Sunday Vanguard that the bandits had already cut the window protector to his apartment and fired shots into the house when, all of a sudden, one of their colleagues beckoned on them that it was time to go, as time was running out on them. One of his sons said that the bullet fired by the bandits grazed his stomach. Okoh was lucky as his neighbour, one Brother Attah, was robbed. Okoh said it was God that saved him and his family.
The spokesman of the church, whose family was equally robbed, said the robbers simply asked him when they came to his apartment to surrender all available handsets and produce any money in the house. He said he responded as they ordered and they left his residence for other apartments after collecting his GSM handset and an undisclosed amount of money. His words: "We heard gunshots and woke up wondering what was amiss.
We were not used to the kind of gunshots that we heard and, you see, when there was an emergency in the past, people came out, but the sound of the gunshots that night showed that the people came with sophisticated guns and it was not something unarmed people could handle.
They practically held the entire community hostage for hours, as they moved from house to house, raiding and robbing the residents. They forced the doors open and were with cutters with which they cut the window protectors. You know it is foolhardy to stop a man with gun with ordinary hand, that was the situation we found ourselves but it became clear after our president, Brother Aighalua, delivered a far sighted sermon last Sunday that the faith of the GKS members had been put on trial and the success or otherwise of the church depended on our collective understanding of the device of the enemy and our response to the grand design."
Mood: The despair that enveloped the church gave way after the Sunday sermon of the GKS president, who told the members that devil came to destabilize the work of God in the church, frustrate and make the members to question God's power to protect them and, generally, undermine and weaken the church. The message was like a tonic, as the worshippers became more resolved to continue with their service to God.
The widows of the two ministers were also in the church service, two days after the murder of their husbands. There was grave silence in the church that day as Aighalua addressed the members, citing portions of the scripture to affirm that nothing, not even adversity or death, should separate a Christian from the love of God. Members from the church branches in Lagos, Aba, Benin, Abuja and other parts of the country and the world have been trooping to the headquarters in Warri in fellowship and that has waxed a strong determination to continue in love and faith in the minds of many.
"Instead of dampening the spirit of members, the incident has roused them, it has angered them to look more introspectively at the device of the enemy and even the immediate families of the victims have picked up," a member told Sunday Vanguard.
Unusual prayers for killer-robbers: For causing the GKS community pains at such a critical time, the church, under normal circumstances, is supposed to return fire for fire, but Aighalua told members that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23) and charged the armed robbers who invaded the church to turn away from their evil ways. He said the church would rather pray for them to repent to avert the anger of God against them, asserting that if they die without repentance, souls that would ordinarily have been saved will be lost.
Worship: In terms of worship, the GKS has no other form of worship save that which is laid down in the Holy Bible. The hallmarks are simplicity and absence of formalities and emphasis on the dispensation of the truth, the bread or water of life to the congregation so that they may practise righteousness and be saved in God's kingdom.
Trying moment for Aighalua: For Aighalua who mounted the saddle as the president of the church in September 1, 2001, the past one week and two days have been hectic but he has managed to cope. "He is supposed to be deeply engrossed in the preparations for the Feast of Tabernacles, which the GKS celebrates annually in keeping with Biblical injunctions, and the examples of Jesus Christ," Hart told Sunday Vanguard, but he has been saddled with the responsibility of bearing the burden of the death of four members of the church in one day.
The church runs a very tight budget as there are no membership fees and people contribute money for the advancement of its doctrines and kingdom, as they are led. At the moment, the church has found itself in a situation where it must give the four departed ones befitting burial and also shoulder the financial implication of hosting the feast.
The venue for the GKS Feast of Tabernacles was usually rotated among the major cities in Nigeria, but it is now restricted to Salem City, the church headquarters, because of the availability of space and facilities to cope with the ever increasing number of delegates, which now runs into tens of thousands.
The feast features public lectures on various topics of the Holy Bible, processions, children assembly, and performances by over 40 choral groups from within and outside Nigeria. It has no fewer than 120 branches in Nigeria and abroad; it has presence in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Liberia. Aighalua has been inundated with calls from all parts of the country and the world since the November 21 incident, consoling him on the catastrophe. But as people call to sympathize with him, they find the GKS leader cheering them up and asking them to pray for the armed robbers that they would repent and be saved to escape eternal annihilation.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
