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Terrorism: Day church empowered widows, orphans in Port Harcourt

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By Daniel Abia  / Snr Correspondent Port Harcourt

 

Tears. Agony. Sorrow. Then joy. The venue was the Abundant Live Evangel Mission (ALEM) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital. And the event was the GO’s (General Overseer) Day on Sunday, December 14. It is always a moment set aside to honor the General Overseer and founder of the church.

Also, it is a day that the church dedicates to reach out to the less privileged especially the widows and orphans for succor. As always, this set of people in their hundreds were drawn from Jos in Plateau State, Maiduguri, Borno State, Abia, and some more from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to be empowered for their sustainability and livelihood.

Majority of the widows on Sunday were those who lost their husbands and kids on March 7, 2010 when a hydra-headed terrorist Muslim group unleashed an unprecedented carnage on innocent people of Dogo Nahauwa community in Plateau State killing hundreds in their sleep and burning down houses with reckless abandon.

Though this gruesome act happened about four years ago, the wound has refused to heal. The sad memory is not ready to leave its victims. Some of the orphans’ ages range between 14 and 17 years, yet, to them, the disaster remains a sad reference point of their lives even as they grow up.

This Sunday was a day some of them managed to recollect what happened to their community on that fateful day when terrorists stormed their homes at about 3.00 a.m. shouting “Allahu Akbar” and then shooting sporadically. At dawn, over 500 people, mostly Christians, were slaughtered. Some have their heads severed from the neck. Many more got their legs and arms chopped off and stomach ruptured.

Indeed, it was a charged atmosphere wet with tears, a painful reflection of cruelty of man to his fellow man. But in the midst of their sorrow, the Arm of Hope World Outreach, a non-profit making organisation from ALEM, reached out to them and gave them a lifeline.

Mrs. Yop Pam, 44, from Dogo Nahauwa community in Jos was full of praises for Apostle Eugene Ogu, President of the organisation and the General Overseer of ALEM for his “unmatched” love and kindness to the widows.

“We were still mourning the killing of our husbands and children when he came to help us in Jos. Papa ‘Ogu’ has given all my children scholarship up to the university. He gave me money for a business. Today, my family is living because of what he has done for us. Today we are in Port Harcourt now because he wants us to enjoy this Christmas and forget about our sorrow,” Mrs. Pam said.

Charity Gyang Pam, 17, also from Dogo Nahauwa who was barely 13 when the unfortunate incident happened, managed to recollect exactly what went wrong: “We were sleeping when we heard gunshots everywhere. They came to our house and said they were going to kill all of us and burn down the building.

“One of them said they should leave our family because my father used to help them anytime they had a problem. But another one said no, they must kill us. Though they left us but my father later died in a motor accident as a result of the shock from the threat.”

Now an orphan, Charity, was given a lifeline as she enrolled in the Arm of Hope Grammar School, the only private school to cater for the educational need of the hitherto hopeless children whose parents had been killed in the course of the crisis that rocked Jos at that time.

Other orphans like Lydia Bulus, 13, and Nancy John Chuwang, 14, all students of the same school, have their own versions of the bitter story to tell. But they have found solace so far in the determination of Apostle Ogu to redefine the reason why they have to live and become useful not just to themselves but also to the same society that has been so cruel to them.

“I thought my world had come to an end. I did not see any thing to live for. I lost my parents. They burnt our house. There was no thought of ever going to school because there was no means. Who was going to take care of me if I decided to enroll in school?” said another.

Daniel Thawang, 15, managed to escape the wrath of the terrorists but not without indelible marks on his head and lips. The machete cut at the back of his head shows that his enemies targeted to chop off his head. But he was lucky to escape with the wound and today, he lives to tell the bizarre story the way he witnessed it.

“They came to our house very early in the morning shooting guns and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. I ran out and I saw two men coming. I thought they were Christians. One held a stick. The other one carried a machete. He hit me with the stick and the other one flung the machete to cut off my neck. I dodged. I did not know he cut my head because I did not feel the pains immediately.

“I escaped from them with the blood all over me. On my way, I saw an old woman lying by the side of the road helpless. I wanted to help her but there was no strength in me. I lost a lot of blood. The old mama was shouting, begging me to come and help her so that they don’t come and kill her there. I could not. If I did, maybe I would have died. There was no more strength in me and I was very small.

“She was like my grandmother. But I had to help myself first. They killed my father. Life was difficult for us until ‘daddy’ (Apostle Ogu) came and brought me here. God has really used him to help us. If not him, we would have all perished by now because nobody will want to come and help you. God will bless daddy.’”

Mrs. Cecilia Iwere, 62, lost her husband 20 years ago. According to her, life was a bitter pill before she came into contact with Apostle Ogu’s Arm of Hope. Presently, she is happy that four of her children are in the university on the organisation’s scholarship.

Mrs. Iwere who is from Abia State confessed that her life and that of the members of her family was “battered and shattered” until she came in contact with the man of God. “I thank God that my children are now in the university by the help of this great man of God.

“Life was very difficult for us as a family. It became much more difficult when I lost the job I had before. Right now I am not working. It was difficult for us to eat. It was difficult for my children to go to school. But suddenly, God brought this His servant who has done so much to give my family hope and future.”

The story of Theresa Okoro, 51, is also not too palatable. She lost her beloved husband on November 2, 2001.

“Since then, it has been hell for me and my four children. No relations came to our help, no in-law, nobody. But God in His love sent His servant our way.

“I am a primary school teacher here in Rivers State. But what is the salary of a primary school teacher to cater for a family of six people! The life of a widow is a very challenging situation. Widows face a lot of harassment and intimidation.

“I never met with daddy one on one before. But he has done so much for me since I came to this church. We survive by his prayers apart from the material things and money we benefit from him. Government should assist by giving us soft loan and automatic employment for our children,” Theresa pleaded.

President of Arm of Hope International and General Overseer of Abundant Life Evangel Mission, ALEM, Apostle Eugene Uguwatu Ogu, indeed wept over the severity of agony, pains and the loss of lives of innocent Nigerians in the course of the various crises that have rocked many parts of Nigeria.

“If God Almighty can give me the grace to take care and put smiles on the faces of these widows and orphans, if that is the only thing I can do before I go home (heaven), I will be an accomplished man,” he said.

“The Nigerian government, particularly this present administration, does not know the true situation of what happened to these communities and these people. It takes four hours to travel from Jos to Miangwu community, so no Journalist reported the number of deaths there.

“I will want other churches, government, institutions and individuals to come to help of these people. They need our support. They need our assistant. Government must rise to this challenge and help these widows and orphans”.

In the spirit of that compassion and magnanimity, Eugene Ogu who lost his own parents at a tender age and found solace in sleeping on the carpenter’s table for years, has built a secondary school at Dogo Nahauwa and the indigent orphans are now enrolled in the school on scholarship, courtesy of Arm of Hope.

 

 

All the teachers and non-academic staff in the school are on the pay roll of the organisation. Presently, there are 1173 indigent children on scholarship in various universities in the country and outside Nigeria. Most of the beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme are members of other churches like Redeem, Winners Chapel, Christ Embassy, Catholic, Deeper Life among others.

On yearly basis, the organisation picks up a bill of N42 million for school fees of these scholars alone outside other numerous responsibilities.

“It takes so much from me as a person and the church in general. The government of Governor Rotimi Amaechi assisted us once and we ploughed that into building of schools in various places. We have dug several boreholes in so many communities. We give free uniforms, sandals, books and pay school fees for our indigent children,” he disclosed.

“Arm of Hope World Outreach went to Dogo Nahawa where we saw corpses littered all over the community after which we witnessed the mass burial. We gave cash gifts to the victims, the community head and youth leader were also given money for immediate renovation of damaged houses.

“Arm of Hope World Outreach stops at nothing to reach out to the precarious victims of the numerous crises which have left many orphaned, fatherless, childless, widowed and widows, as the organisation is passionately committed to her mission of restoring hope to the hopeless.

“We went to Miango in Bassa LGA of Plateau State eight hours after lives were terminated and valuables destroyed in October 2010. The community was given some money for the renovation of damaged property and cash was disbursed to the victims to cushion the effects of the riot,” he narrated.

The post Terrorism: Day church empowered widows, orphans in Port Harcourt appeared first on Daily Independent, Nigerian Newspaper.


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