By Sam Eyoboka
FRONTLINE Pentecostal preacher and Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission TREM, Dr. Mike Okonkwo has condemned the recent raid on the Abuja home of elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, describing it as an unacceptable act.

*Bishop Okonkwo

Speaking in an interview after the 19th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture to mark his 73rd birthday, the former Vice President of CAN, lamented that the Police could throw caution to the wind by trying to intimidate an elder statesman for his stringent views on restructuring.

The bishop, however, appealed to aggrieved militants of the Niger-Delta, who may have been angered by the invasion on the privacy of the elder statesman for speaking the truth on national issues, to sheathe their swords and maintain peace in the Niger Delta.

Okonkwo who believes that Nigeria is a great country, blamed the political class for all the current socio-political challenges responsible for Nigeria overtaking India as the country with the largest number of extremely poor people in the world.

“I will say that politicians are not really sincere about the progress of this country in the sense that all these cross carpeting and defections are not for the interest of Nigeria. Rather, it’s for personal interest. They are not serious and they are just playing on the minds of Nigerians and virtually abusing us and asking us what can we do?

On the killings in the Middle Belt, he stated that the Church is praying, “but my major concern is that we are not getting the accurate information.

Look at the one that happened Wednesday, you went to the mines and shot people, are there grasses in the mine? For me, the continued killing is purely nothing but terrorism. If you understand how terrorists function, they function in such a way that they are like a parallel government to the existing government… so the authorities must take decisive actions on those behind the killings.’’