BY EMEKA MAMAH

OWERRI — The Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, last week, officially received 10 former kidnappers, rapists, cultists and militants from Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area who publicly renounced their membership of their respective groups following the amnesty granted them by the Imo State government in July, this year.

Cross-section of the repentant former kidnappers with some priests after the prayers.

At the well-publicised event, the militants were said to have handed over some of their arms including Ak-47 riffles, rocket launchers, pistols, charms, machetes, knives and axes, among others to the Rochas Okorocha’s administration in the state, following the state government’s promise to grant them amnesty.

Among those who witnessed the July event included Governor Okorocha, the state police commissioner, military officials, the state director of the Department of State Services, DSS as well as other security agencies and top government officials.

The former cultists and kidnappers included Ikechukwu Obasi, Ngozi Ihezue, Goodluck Kalanwu, Innocent Uchegbu and Samuel Mbakwe Amadi.

Others were Emmanuel Madu, Valentine Madu, Calistus Igbokwe, Obinwa Opara and Godson Chibunwanne.

The repentant former kidnappers kneeling before the alter for Archbishop Obinna’s prayers and blessings. Behind them are some Catholic priests and their relations.

However, during the special mass at the Maria Assumpta Cathedral in Owerri, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese, Most Rev. Anthony Obinna, asked the repentant militants not to go back to their old and crooked ways of life after they had knelt down before the altar and promised God that they had changed for good.

Archbishop Obinna called out the repentant former cult members, one after the other to renounce cultism, rape, murder and stealing publicly in the presence of their parents or relations, after which each of them knelt down before the alter, for a prayer session with Obinna and some priests.

He later sprinkled holy water on their heads while praying for them once more.

Speaking shortly after the prayers which were conducted after an official mass at 10 am, Obinna directed that any of them who had neither been baptised nor confirmed in the church must complete the processes for them to really become “new children of God.”

When Obinna was told that all the repentant cultists were married with one of them already having a child, he said, “You have blood in your veins just like your former victims. You feel pains like the relations of the victims or the victims themselves and you know how it pains when loved ones are either kidnapped or killed in the process.

“Now that you have made promises here before God that you will not go back to your old ways; in the presence of your parents or relations, endeavour to keep the promises so that you do not disappoint God,” as all of them chorused Amen, Amen.