BENIN—TENSION
heightened at Benin
Catholic Archdiocese, Edo
State, weekend, following
the call for the removal of
the Catholic Archbishop, Bishop Augustine
Akubueze by the Iyase of
Benin Kingdom, Chief Sam
Igbe and few Benin priests. They based their call on
what they described as the
refusal of the
“indigenisation of worship
process” in Catholic
churches in Benin by the Bishop. It will be recalled that few
Benin priests had called for
the removal of the Bishop
last week, alleging that he
flooded the Diocese with
Igbo priests and was implementing anti-Benin
policies. However, former Senate
Chief Whip, Senator
Rowland Owie and a Benin
Priest, Pama
Ikponmwonsa, disagreed
and described the call as ungodly, retrogressive and
diversionary, saying “Bini
don’t forbid visitors and
this is purely a religious
matter and has nothing to
do with tribe.” Senator Owie said: “Let any
one of them challenge me
to a public debate on the
stewardship of Archbishop
Akubueze since his arrival. “Apart from Bishop Gbuji,
the evangelistic efforts of
Akubueze in Edo South,
which is the Archdiocese of
Benin, is unprecedented in
the Catholic Church. We should learn to give
honour to whom honour is
due to.” However, Chief Igbe, who
was flanked by other
Benin Chiefs, accused the
archbishop of doing things
contrary to the Papal policy
of promoting indigenous language and customs of
the people. He said that the use of local
languages would, the
Roman Catholic Church
leadership believed, lead to
wining more converts to
the church. Speaking on behalf of the
Edo Liturgical Group, the
Iyase said that there was a
deliberate attempt to
scheme Bini-speaking
priests out of things by deliberately sending them
abroad in the guise of
training and replacing them
with Igbo priests.

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Is there anything, just something going on in this country that will just not involve tribal wars??
Even in matters of the almighty tribal wars are still brewing.
God save us from ourselves o.