Condemnations have trailed the flogging of Glorious Abel, a staff of Rivers State Television fourty strokes of the cane across his bare back on the instructions of a pastor of a new generation church in Port Harcourt.
Recall that a video yesterday went viral on social media which shows the staff lying lifeless at the gate of his station.
He was said to have been picked up at about 10pm on the fateful day by a team of armed policemen led by the pastor and taken to an unknown destination, where he was given the beating of his life and later dumped at the gate of the television station at about 3am the following morning.
Metronetworknews gathered that the grouse of the Pastor U. O. Miracle of Dynamic Flame of Fire Miracle Ministry was because his paid sponsored religious programme was stopped at the expiration of the 30mins allotted to it as against 38mins production by Abel who is an operation director in charge of the consul in the studio.
It was learnt that the pastor who was watching the programme from his home quickly mobilised his security details to the studio and allegedly ordered the policemen to whisk and flog the director .
Some residents of Port Harcourt have reacted in total condemnation of the act .
One of the residents,Justin Briggs ,called on the commissioner of police to institute an immediate investigation of the matter and the pastor’s activities in Port-Harcourt.
“The Rivers State Commissioner of Police and other security agencies must act quickly and bring the said Pastor to book. Nonsense”, he stated.
Another resident, Dr. Justice Ihunwo, described the pastor’s action against the staff as “jungle justice”, which he said. should not be condoned.
“This impunity must not be allowed to go unpunished. The temerity of the pastor is daring and deserves urgent action by government”.
On his part, a staff of the television station who preferred to remain anonymous while condemning the action, alleged that the pastor was in the habit of harassing the station’s operational directors on duty.
“This same pastor has repeatedly harrased our operational directors on duty whenever they stop his programme after it has exceeded the required 30mins slot he paid for”, he alleged.
In his own reaction, human right activist, Enefaa Georgewill, called for justice for Abel, describing the action as barbaric and crude.
“Imagine what a so-called man of God did to a poor innocent worker who was only doing his duty”, he lamented.
Reacting on the incident in his facebook page, Bayelsa based journalist, Alambo Datonye Fred wrote: “Too much mad people in our society”.
Also, the NUJ RSTV Chapel in a statement signed by its Chairma, Joy Edmund and Secretary Justice Ihunwo, respectively, condemned the invasion of the the station by the pastor with armed police men.
The statement read; “The Executives and Members of Rivers State Television chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists received with dismay the news of the senior pastor of Dynamic Flame of Fire and Miracle Ministry, Woji, Port Harcourt, Senior Prophet U.O. Miracle who invaded RSTV studio at an odd hours of 11pm on Wednesday 5th October, 2022 with armed police men to abduct the Operation Director, Mr Glorious Abel to an unknown place, tortured him and left him to his fate with the single reason that the OP stopped his church programme which exceeded 30 minute that is required.
“The union views the action of the said prophet as the height of irresponsibility, impunity, rascality and hooliganism that is not befitting of a man who parades with the toga “Man of God” and condemn his commando like operation in its entirety.
“One wonders why a man who is called a pastor and has a large congregation that he teaches the words of God woud adopt such a crude way of addressing his grievances instead of going through administrative process of laying his complaint.
“The RSTV Chapel of NUJ is therefore calling on government to step into the matter and ensure that the police brings the pastor and his accomplices to book to act as a detterent.
“We also appeal to government to deploy security operative to guard the Rivers State Television premise as the action of the pastor would not has been easily carried if the station had police security”.
Similarly, in a statement, the Management lampooned the pastor for his action.
“The Management and staff of RSTV have expressed shock over the Gestapo style kidnap of one of their operations directors Mr. Glorious Abel on Wednesday 5th October 2022 at his duty post around 10:00pm by the General Overseer of Dynamic Flame of Fire and Miracle Ministries, Pastor Miracle a.k.a Last Bus Stop.
“According to the security men on duty, Pastor Miracle arrived at RSTV Complex with armed policemen claiming they had reports of an intruder in the station’s premises and would love to help fish him out. Unknown to the security men, the pastor had other motives. They opened the gate and he drove straight to the main office complex where Mr. Glorious Abel was working. Luckily, Glorious had secured the metal gate at the front office while he worked in the control room. Hearing a racket outside, Mr. Abel came out to see who it was and met a strange face peering into the office through the metal gate asking him to come out to speak with the pastor. Mr. Abel told the man he had closed for the day and went back to the control room despite the man’s insistence. Moments later, the man returned with the same mission, and again Glorious Abel turned him down. About half an hour before this drama, Mr. Abel had received a call from the same general overseer of Dynamic Flame of Fire and Miracle Ministries asking him if he was on night duty and he had answered in the affirmative. Then the unthinkable happened.
“There was another racket at the front office. Someone was shaking the gate to its roots and appeared bent on yanking it off the hinges. Mr. Abel was alarmed and he went out to see who it was. Surprisingly it was an RSTV security man. Upon inquiries, the man said he was instructed by the acting general manager to pick up an item he left in the reception. Of course, Mr. Abel asked what it was so he could pick it up and pass it over to him through the openings in the gate but the security man would not hear of it. He insisted that he take it himself arguing that he was specifically instructed to pick and keep the item for the acting GM, refusing to say what the item was and its exact location. Seeing that Mr. Abel wasn’t buying his explanation, the security man changed the narrative and said the item was in the acting general manager’s office upstairs and that the acting general manager was at the car park waiting for him to deliver it. At this point, Mr. Abel gave in and without suspecting any foul play, opened the gate for his colleague to come in unaware that the security man had gone rogue and was now working with Pastor Miracle.
“Immediately Mr. Abel opened the gate, the security man signaled Pastor Miracle’s men who were lying in wait to pounce on him. That was just the beginning of his ordeal. The men in black hit him with the butt of their guns, almost blinding his right eye, and took him away at gunpoint. In a brief moment, before he became completely disoriented, Mr. Abel raised an alarm and called on his colleague, Mr. Dornubari Girigiri, to call the acting general manager. Fearing for his own safety, Mr. Girigiri immediately put off the lights in the control room, the studio, and the passage while he took cover and quickly called the acting general manager. Meanwhile, the gunmen who wore police uniforms and carried AK47 rifles forced Mr. Abel into their tinted window van and attempted to asphyxiate him as they sped off.
“They got to an unknown destination and dragged him into a house where they tied his hands and legs and flogged him mercilessly with a belt and a cane. All this while, Pastor Miracle was around calling the shots.
“When they were done with the torture, Pastor Miracle pulled some money out of his jacket and forced it into Mr. Abel’s pocket threatening him to shut up and go treat himself mafia style. A couple hours later, he ordered his men to drive him back to Elelenwo and dump him opposite the RSTV gate to lick his wounds.
“”As I write this, Mr. Glorious Abel’s health is in a precarious condition having suffered much trauma to the body from the butts and boots of the policemen and punches from the pastor’s men. Nobody knows how much damage was done to his body, especially if he sustained internal injuries or not. We must state here that this is not the first time the general overseer of Dynamic Flame of Fire has threatened to kill an RSTV staff just because they would not give in to his demands of airing his programmes beyond the scheduled time”, the statement read.
All attempts to speak with the pastor proved abortive as at the time of filing this report.
