Attempt by a Roman Catholic priest to turn sermon into political campaign was vigorously resisted by parishioners on Sunday in Enugu the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Catholic Church, Mbanugo, Coal Camp, Enugu.
The church service, Blueprint gathered, turned into an uproar and a shouting match when the parish priest, Rev. Fr. Raphael Chukwu turned church service to campaign for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Barr. Peter Mbah.
It was also gathered that the priest who was trying to compel the faithful to vote for Peter Mbah during the forthcoming governorship election, condemned the Labour Party (LP), candidate, Hon Chijioke Edeoga, saying “he is older than Peter Mbah, it’s not his turn to become governor, he is not a Catholic faithful and Peter is a Catholic and many more.”
Surprisingly, the faithful started shouting, “stop the campaign, this is church service time, not campaign time. You and Bishop will vomit the N500m given to you because Mbah will not win, why are you turning the church service into a campaign? Look at how poor your faith for Christ is. Stop instigating us against other denomination.
Effort to stop the angry faithful to listen to him was in vain untill he said praise be to thy Lord Jesus Christ and there was no response. He quietly stepped back to the sanctuary as many faithful left the church in anger and shouting, “peace of the Lord be into you.”
Piqued by Fr. Chukwu’s sermon turned to campaign, many people bowed their head to God but left the church angrily to their various homes.
It was further gathered that the church was divided at the middle of service as he said that Bishop has instructed them to tell the faithful to vote for Mbah based on the documents forwarded to them by Independence National Electoral Commission, requesting that they should campaign for Peter Mbah.
Some social media handles had recently accused Enugu Catholic Bishop of collecting five hundred million naira, (N500m) from PDP to impose Mbah on them as the candidate for 11th March governorship election.
