14th February, 2022
Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State said he was taken to court by “witches” for building a Christian worship centre in the state.
The multi-billion naira worship centre which is ongoing in Uyo has been heavily criticized.
Many of the critics said the money should have been used for other development needs of the oil-rich state.
But Mr. Emmanuel argued that it was necessary for Akwa Ibom, “as a state named after God, to build a temple for God.”
The governor in a media chat on Saturday said: “All (the) witches and wizards came together and took me to court that we are building a Christian Worship Center.
“They say they are atheists. The case is in the court, we won them but they have appealed.”
Mr. Emmanuel, who recently hand-picked a pastor and one of his cabinet members as his preferred successor in the 2023 governorship election, was responding to a reporter’s question if God truly revealed to him his successor as he claimed.
While answering the question, he veered off to talk about how “witches” sued him and the government.
“Communication between a leader and God is different from what any other person would see or understand, people must understand that,” Mr Emmanuel said about God “revealing” who should succeed him as governor.
However, the governor’s remark about “witches” appeared to have overshadowed all the other things he said about his administration, as several people from the state took to Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to talk about “witches”.
According to Nigeria’s criminal law, it is an offence to accuse any person of being a witch.
However, one of Mr Emmanuel’s aides, Aniekeme Finbarr, quickly took to Facebook to offer clarifications to the governor’s remarks.
Mr Finbarr said Mr. Emmanuel was referring to a lawsuit filed by the Atheist Society of Nigeria against the Akwa Ibom State Government in 2019 to stop the government from building the worship center.
Finbarr said: “I have read quite a lot on attempts by Atheists, to stop the construction of the Int’l worship centre in Akwa Ibom State. Governor Udom Emmanuel mentioned it in his interview yesterday. It sounds extremely funny but it is true. There are actually real legal attempts to stop the building project.
“In July 2019, Akwa Ibom High Court dismissed the legal action instituted by the Atheist Society of Nigeria (ASN) against the Akwa Ibom State Government over the building of multi-million International Christian Worship Centre in the state for lack of merit.
“The Chief Judge Justice Godwin Abraham who dismissed the case after eight-month of the judicial trial also awarded N500,000 costs against the Atheist Society of Nigeria. The guys are currently on Appeal.”