By SAM EYOBOKA

AGBARHO—THE people of Agbarho, a community of 14 semi-autonomous villages in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, penultimate Thursday, locked up all businesses to seek celestial intervention and protest neglect of the community by government. The Agbarho Christian Forum spearheaded the interdenominational solemn assembly in conjunction with Agbarho Urhobo Improvement Union and Agbarho Traditional Council.

Clergymen on the ground praying for God’s intervention.

All approaches to the city centre known in the community as Five Junction, including the Agbarho Main Market, which daily serves the needs of residents were effectively blocked by local task force members supported by a detachment of Nigeria Police operatives for the programme tagged; “Agbarho fasting and prayer day/thanksgiving service 2015.”

Different preachers from diverse denominations took their turn to lead the large audience in supplication to God to forgive the sins of past local leaders, heal the entire land, and rid it of hoodlums and other undesirable elements that daily terrorize innocent people in the community.

Speaking, president-general of Agbarho Urhobo Improvement Union, AUIU, Chief John Gbenedion and the coordinator of Agbarho Prayer Day, Bishop Isaac Etidia, stressed the importance of the yearly prayer sessions, arguing that for the exercise, which started four years ago, the situation in the community would have degenerated.

The twosome urged Christians living in the community to pray against all strongholds  pitted against the progress and development of the community and its citizens, adding that in the face of obvious oppressive governmental policies, it was wise for the indigenes to emphasize the spiritual option.

Guest speaker and former CAN chair, Ughelli North Local Government, Bishop Diamond Emuobo, after a brief exaltation, came down from the podium and led the battery of clergymen present to the Five Junction and laid flat on their bellies, praying for total deliverance of the land from shackles of wicked occult powers.

It was a spectacle to behold as all the men of God prostrated on the road for about 15 minutes, supplicating while the choir dressed in white, supplied accompanying music to demonstrate the seriousness of the enterprise. At the end, the guest speaker declared Agbarho free of all forms of satanic manipulations.

Earlier in his sermon, Bishop Emuobo articulated some of the challenges facing Agbarho community to include ramshackle roads, unemployment and hospitals deceitfully acquired in government’s name, which turned out to be private endeavors.

The people are mainly farmers and businessmen/women. The town has facilities like a post office, pipe-borne water supply and electricity, but the satellite villages had none of these facilities until the 1990s ushered in a new development drive, which began to open up the interiors.

Notable of such drives was a self-help electrification project instituted by businessperson, late Chief John Mononia Agbatutu for Ohrerhe community.

Like most communities in the Niger Delta area, Agbarho lacks good roads, electricity, potable water and good schools. Unemployment is high because the rivers, creeks and streams, which provide people with their main source of livelihood – farming have been extensively polluted through the activities of the more than a dozen oil companies operating in the area.