This Day (Lagos)
Agha Ibiam
25 June 2009
analysis
Lagos — The recent attack on the militants by the Joint Task Force (JTF) has thrown many families into refugee camps. But there's a voice in the wilderness calling for caution and to assuage the sufferings of the internally displaced people in that region.
Recently, succour came the way of thousands of persons who were displaced from their places of abode and made refugees in their own community as a result of the three weeks of Joint Task Force (JTF) attack on the militants in the riverine areas of Delta State. The refugees who are mainly women and children and some aged were happy this sunny day in June.
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the General Overseer of the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, Delta State, and National President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), is a man with an open heart and he showed this when he visited the refugees scattered in different rehabilitation centres. He did not visit them with empty hands, as he went with well packaged food items that is worth over N50 million to alleviate their problems.
Worried by the continued suffering of the people, Ayo went round the three camps within the Warri metropolis, preaching and counseling the disturbed people that were mostly women and children, and whose academic careers had been terminated without any glimmer of hope of when they will be resettled back to their homes.
The pastoral voyage began from his church situated at the Ajamimogha area of the embattled oil city where he told his members that his mind has been troubled concerning the situation of the people, mostly the less privileged. "I get all sorts of reports since the whole thing started about three weeks ago, telling me of the hardship and the difficulties of people running into the marshy bushes for shelter and all that.
"I have been worried over the condition of these people who have been turned refugees in their own land. That is why it took a while for us to put something together, especially for the suffering masses that have no hope," Ayo said. Apart from responding to the needs of the internally displaced, Papa Ayo, who knows how to balance equation also extended high level of sympathy to the soldiers who lost their lives in the on-going battle.
He said, "the soldiers that have lost their lives in this struggle are human beings and above all are Nigerians too, who should have been alive to make their noble contributions to the development of their fatherland." He prayed that God should comfort the families of those that have lost their lives and put an end to the suffering of the people that have been displaced.
While appealing to the Federal Government to find a way to end the conflict, he said "they should find a way to resort to dialogue where we can sit down and work something out. We are prepared to either initiate or participate in any negotiation leading to a peaceful resolution of the crisis because at the end of the day, it is dialogue that will resolve the dispute."
On the sunny day in June, Papa Ayo went to waterside at the creeks, where he outlined reasons why his church had undertaken the task to cushion the pains of the displaced persons. Quoting Jesus statement in the Holy Bible, he said, "I was hungry and you fed me." He continued, "So we are following the injunction of Jesus Christ who preached to the people and when He finished preaching, He made sure the people were fed," he said.
At Ogbe Ijaw, he saw those who were in the bush with children strapped behind their backs and having no place to lay their heads. According to him, the least they could do was to donate the goods worth N5 million to them. In another camp Papa Ayo and his team visited, he encouraged the displaced persons that were mainly of infirm old women and hungry-looking children. He told the refugees that were milled around that what they have received from them was a temporary thing and that God in His infinite mercy will help to bring this whole brouhaha to an end. He told that they would have another opportunity to go back to their homes and reunite with their loved ones.
One of the courageous displaced persons who spoke on behalf of others through an interpreter told Pastor Ayo to mediate on their behalf before President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. She thanked the PFN president for his kind gesture and urged him to appeal to the Federal Government to see the 'militants' as arrant children fighting for recognition.
"Your kind gesture is a big relief to us here. We appreciate you and hope that more and more people will see the need to identify with our present predicament. Though we appreciate the gifts, there's no place like home and we very much want to go back to our homes," the woman said, while Papa Ayo promised that their message will be conveyed to the appropriate quarters.
Backing words with action, shortly after the courtesy visits to the riverside areas, the PFN helmsman sent a delegation of some pastors and officers of the church to nearly 20 villages in the Gbaramatu Kingdom to deliver about 27 bags of beans, 40 bags of salt, 50 cartons of milk, 1,000 tubers of yam, 100 bags of garri, 40 of 25 litres jerry-can of kerosene, 20 of 25 litres tin of palm oil and 20 of 25-litres tin of groundnut oil.
Other items donated by the cleric include 10 bags of onions, 50 bags of salt, 50 bags of 'Kpokpo' garri, 50 bags of palm nuts, 1 sack of pepper, 50 bags of starch, 50 bags of pure water sachets. The delegation lead by Pastor Francis Okiowei also presented special gift items to a young lady, Mrs. Timighae Dude who was said to have been delivered of a baby boy in the marshy forest while fleeing from the onslaught of the menacing Federal troops.
The young lady, who had her baby cuddled in her own wrapper in the harsh weather, was full of joy and appreciation to the church and its leadership for the recognition accorded her and her first baby. She also appealed to the Federal Government to halt the current hostilities for the benefit of the poor people of the area who had no say in the matter neither do they have a place to run to.
"You know what I have always said that in the event of any military intervention in the Niger Delta crisis, it is only the innocent persons that will suffer the effect. We are therefore appealing to government to keep the door of amnesty open, but above all they should try to stop the military operation because of the innocent persons who are being victims," Papa Ayo pleaded.
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has been described as a man with an open heart. This character of his has earned him a lot of esteem both within and outside the Christian fold. In fact, it has also earned him national honour too.
His name is now synonymous to gift, love, kindness and all the qualities of the fruits of the spirit according to Christian faithful. On many occasions, he has proven that the poor that are constantly around the rich ought to be taken care of without them asking for arm.
Apart from preaching the word of God in and out of season, if it were possible for him, he would feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fishes. However, this man of God has been doing the possibilities. At Warri in particular, he has contributed in no small measure to alleviate the suffering of the people by empowering the poor to at least eat two square meals, if not three.
"Some of the people coming to church are not coming to hear the word of God, but are in our midst for their needs to be satisfied. Therefore when we carry the Bible with the right hand, we should also satisfy their needs on the other hand," Ayo ones said.
More so, during calamitous conditions which were sometimes faced by displaced Christians in Maiduguri, Bauchi, Asaba, amongst other states in the country, he has been faithful enough to ensure that they do not lack 'bread'. But most astonishing of one of his visits was at Asaba, Delta State, when he met with both the Christians and Moslems that were internally displaced as a result of religious intolerance. Ayo had to put smile on the faces of those people as they were provided with food stuffs. That was not all for a man that has put his hand on a plow and promised not to look back.
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