Iyke

Rev. Dr. Daniel Egboka, Assistant General Superintendent of the National Evangelical Mission and Chairman Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (Borno State Chapter) is the Pastor of the National Evangelical Mission Wukari Headquarters, Maiduguri. His church suffered most in the hands of the extremist sect. Not only was the entire church burnt down, his assistant Pastor, his brother and the security man were all murdered in cold blood while taking refuge inside the church. In this interview with IKECHUKWU AMAECHI in Maiduguri, he says those querying the death of Yusuf are being hypocritical.

When did you become the pastor of this church?

I came back here the second time in 1994. I established this church in 1975 and was posted out in 1976. I came back in 1980 and posted out again in 1985 but came back in 1994 and since then I have been the pastor here.

What happened on that fateful day?

Eyewitnesses, because I wasn’t here then, said some people, numbering about 50 jumped over the fence, shooting guns and broke the windows. When my Assistant Pastor that was living here, Sylvester Nseobong, heard the shootings, they were five in the house and they all went inside the church with the hope the people will not enter the church. But these people broke into the church and captured all of them, killed our security man, Elijah Gambo, killed the Pastor’s brother that visited from Akwa Ibom, Patrick James, and then broke the Pastor’s head and stabbed him on the neck. He managed to run away but fell down at the back of the building where he was picked up in the morning.

He was rushed to the hospital and when I rushed to the hospital, I could only spend 30 minutes with him.

When I came back at about 8 a.m., I saw the total destruction. I lost everything I have been working for since 1975 – the pastor’s house, the office, the equipment, everything in the church was burnt. Eyewitnesses said that they threw two grenades into the church and two into the pastor’s house before the buildings were raised down.

When you met your Assistant Pastor, was he still conscious. Did he tell you anything?

No. he was just screaming when the doctors were working on him.

How do you feel?

I feel sad. It is traumatic. My concern is about the Pastor and two others who were burnt beyond recognition. One of them, the security man was buried on Monday, but the Pastor’s brother was taken home to Ikot Ekpene. My Pastor was also taken to Ikot Ekpene and his corpse is still in the mortuary. It is very traumatic.

I’m just from a PFN meeting and everybody was sharing their experience. You will hear from the two girls who were captured and taken to their camp. Both of them were told to renounce their Christianity which they did to save their lives because they watched many who refuse renounce their faith killed. About 60 of them were there in the camp. Only God’s intervention saved them because it was only on Tuesday morning that the girls established contact with us through phone and we started calling security men.

We were able to get a soldier who helped us when they were going to bomb the place to contact the girls on phone, told them what to do when they would be bombing that place, and that was what saved them.

Will this experience force you to leave Maiduguri?

As a human being, I am feeling terribly bad because on February 18, 2006, the same thing would have happened. We lost about 53 churches in this town, 23 of them Pentecostal churches. A lot of people were killed. I remember the incident. I was standing before eight corpses that were about to be carried to the South, praying for the repose of their soul.

I still remember vividly, the tears that were coming out of everybody’s eyes. That was only in 2006, three years ago. Now, this one has happened again. As a human being, it is a tree that you will threaten to kill and it will still stand there. I have great fear that anything can happen.

I believe that I am a target and also the chairman of CAN here. He is the pastor of EYN and his church was also burnt down. It is the two churches that were attacked, bombed before other churches and I feel strongly that I am a target. So I have a fear.

Who do you blame for all these?

I cannot quickly blame anybody but I think the government did not do their duty because they knew those things before they happened. We had a meeting on July 20 and we sent delegates to meet the Commissioner of Police. When they met the Commissioner and told him about all the news filtering in that the Boko Haram people were planning an attack, he told us that the sect was against the government and not the church.

And on Friday, there was news that these people could attack, and government did not do anything about it. They would have prevented the mayhem if they had been proactive.

They have all the machinery to prevent it. They have all the security – the army, the police, the SSS, etc. They could have stopped them. But, now it was after the damage had been done that they stepped in and this was the same thing that happened in 2006.

I insist that the government did not do its work as it ought to, constitutionally. They are to protect the lives and property of the citizens of this nation. Our lives are in danger, lives are not protected. There is fear everywhere.

What did you hear before those attacks?

We heard that members of the sect were preparing to attack the church. In the meeting we held, we sent delegates to the Commissioner of Police. We would have put it in writing but because we had no concrete evidence, we went to tell him verbally what we were hearing.

But he told us that he had heard the same report but that they were not against the church that they were against the government. But the whole thing is against the church. As I speak, about 20 churches were destroyed in this city, three pastors were killed and many brethren lost their lives, most of them because they did not renounce their faith.

There is angst in the international and human rights communities over the killing of Mohammed Yusuf after his arrest without charging him to court. They contend it amounts to extra-judicial killing. What do you say?

Well, that is what people will say. But what about the people he killed? How many people did he kill? Is the international community or those frowning at his death also not concerned about the people he killed? How many people did he kill? How many followers of his were even killed, all because of him? Why should they be blaming the police for killing him? What would the police have done?

I was not there, but I leant that when the man was captured, he said he would not say anything until he reached Abuja and he felt that if he got to Abuja, he may be set free because according to information, he had been arrested and taken to Abuja several times and released.

So, I don’t blame the police for killing him. How many police officers lost their lives? How many soldiers were killed?

Those human rights activists, are they not concerned about the policemen that were killed? Are they not people’s children? What of the soldiers that were killed? Are they not human beings? Why should they be concerned about only one death out of several? Did Yusuf try those he killed in law court? So, I don’t blame the police at all. He deserved death.

What do you demand from the government?

I started this work that has been completely destroyed in 1974. This is where I have put all my life. This is what I have been doing since I became a pastor and it was destroyed just like that. I demand that the government should pay us compensation.

They can’t compensate for the three lives that were lost here. They cannot even compensate fully for what I lost here. What about the building, my equipment. My sound system, I bought one of them $3,000 in 2007. I bought my drum N250,000. The equipment we were using were the best sound system in the whole of Maiduguri. What about my office? How many computers were burnt? All the work I have in the system, all my writings. I have three books I am yet to publish. They are all on the laptop. All were destroyed. No amount of money can compensate for the loss but they must do something. Let it not be like February 18, 2006, which was swept under the carpet.

Do you have an exact idea of the number of people that were killed?

I can only give estimate according to CAN record.  Eighteen Christians lost their lives and 20 churches were totally destroyed and many brethrens’ homes were burnt.

How does this make you feel about Nigeria?

My brother, I will tell you Nigeria is not a safe place to live.  I have traveled round the world.  I have even been to Haiti, the poorest country in the Northern Hemisphere.  They value human life.  We have no value for human life here.

Here, unless you are a rich man, the safety of your life and property is not guaranteed.  We have thousands of policemen, thousands of soldiers, all of them being paid, yet nobody is assured of his safety.

Do you agree that these crises are consequences of poverty?

I disagree.  It is a consequence of hatred.  This is the consequence of spirit of Anti-Christ.  Poverty will not make you to kill your fellow human being.  Poverty will only make you to struggle to get something to eat.  Now that they have killed and maimed, will they become rich, will that solve their poverty problem?

This is not poverty.  It is unbridled hatred against Christianity.  Anything that happens in this town will affect Christians.  Can you call this poverty? No!

Don’t people who are poor go out to struggle for food?  But here, you see them roaming the streets.  Who made them to be poor?  They idle away, not working.  If you don’t work, you are bound to be poor.

How long can this be endured?

Until God intervenes.  Nigeria is in trouble.  Our politicians do not value life. Do you know that at times politicians use these boys to get what they need and later abandon them?  It is only God that can save us. When God intervenes, there will be a remedy.

How does your wife feel?  It will be a surprise if she has not told you it is time to go.

She is already in the East.  She cannot bear this.  She called me on phone this morning to bring the children home.  I will go and buy the ticket for three of them to go home.  I am a target.  As chairman of PFN who appears on television to say the things I say, I am a target.  As a typical Igbo man, I have to sit down and think, and know what next to do.

But for the fact that my church is burnt, all my documents, even the ones to take to the bank are all burnt, I would have sent all of them home.  Let me watch what is happening and seek God’ directives.