Not too long ago, it was like a night of testimony for the late Archbishop Moses Kattey as his corpse journeys to the final resting place. GODWIN EGBA reports on the life and times of the man that has touched the lives of many in Eleme land.
On Friday, April 24 2020, the General Overseer of CommonWealth Covenant Church International Alode, Nchia Eleme, Rivers State suddenly passed on to eternity in the heat of COVID-19 pandemic. It was a sad, black day. His shocking demise was not just a loss to his Eleme home land, but the entire Christian communities in the state and beyond.
The 66 years old with doctoral degree in Physics was described by his peers as a personification of sacrificial service to God and selfless service to humanity.
Bishops, Reverends, Apostles, members of different denominations, academicians of different levels thronged the Commonwealth Church recently to pay their last tribute to their late spiritual leader and mentor of high repute.
Testimonies galore
Notable among the sympathisers that graced the one-week activities for late Kattey’s burial was the eight Eleme legislators including the late Bishop’s first son, Praise Kattey. The legislators in their collective testimonies attested, “We wish to state here that the Bishop’s demise was a call by God for a successful fulfilment of his mission on earth.
“He has being for us and others most especially Eleme people whom he tirelessly brought together to solve one crises or the other such as chieftaincy issues, youth-related crises like cultism, kidnapping, among others.
“For us as a people that identify with the late bishop’s faith in God, we also believe that Christianity is a personal race and we hope to re-unite with him at our different appointed time,” they stressed.
Also in his testimony, the Eleme youth president (worldwide) Prince Brain Gokpa, attested that he came to the late Archbishop in 2016 when the Rivers amnesty programme for criminals was held at the Commonwealth Covenant Church.
He said, “Bishop Kattey was a man with passion for Eleme people; he was zealous to see prosperous Eleme society even as he strived to reconcile many people and he left a legacy too large for somebody to wear his shoes.At a public lecture/book launch in the honor of the deceased, a teacher of Political Economy, Dr Tony Enyia, noted that, “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
Enyia said further, “Death is not the greatest loss in life because the departed such as Moses Olaka Kattey, by his legacies of selfless service to God and humanity, lives on in the hearts and lives of those he impacted.“The departed are ever remembered by the deeds of love and sacrifice they have done while alive. We are here to ensure that nothing God has done in our lives through Archbishop Moses Kattey dies while we are still alive.
“The ArchBishop Kattey I knew from the first day I met him was a man passionately consumed with the work of the Lord in the spreading of the gospel of the kingdom at all season’s serving the Lord and humanity with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell him.“Late Dr Kattey worked as a consummate community pastor and evangelist as he touched virtually every village and community in Eleme where land was freely donated to the church free of charge. We know that Archbishop Kattey kept back nothing that was profitable unto the church, but have showed them and have thought publicly, and from house to house testifying both to the church and also to unbelievers repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A foundation in his honour
A world body of churches in London, Trans Atlantic and pacific Alliaroce (TAPAC) has given its support to establish Commonwealth University in Rivers State to enable poor and indigent youths in the Niger Delta region access education along side with children of the rich.
Another high point of the burial service was a grand setting up of Archbishop Dr Moses Kattey Foundation by Students Christian Movement (SCM) Rivers chapter which was represented by Dr Enyia.
Dr Enyia in his speech said, “A foundation is a nonprofit corporation or charitable trust that makes grants to individuals or institutions for charitable purposes like education or religion hence the Almighty God instituted foundations for the poor and needy, widows, orphans and strangers, pointing out that the new Late Kattey Foundation is to sustain his legacy in relieving the burden of the poor and the less privileged.”
The burial ceremony was a gathering of high profile clergies, Christians and people of various social classes and from all other walks of life to bid the late Archbishop farewell.
The Eleme Council chairman, Barrister Philip Okparaji, who also spoke on behalf of Eleme politicians attested that late Kattey impacted immensely on the lives of Eleme people irrespective of party divide, adding that he was the first pentecostal Archbishop who fonght and destroyed a lot of demonic and evil foundation and trees on Eleme land.