Pastor Arrested For Flouting COVID-19 Lockdown Brutalizes Journalist, NUJ Calls For Government Intervention

By CrossRiverWatch Admin

Mr. Umueke Oruaro Miracle, a clergyman, and the registered trustee of Dynamic Flame of Fire Miracle Ministries in Woji, PortHarcourt, the Rivers State capital on Wednesday stormed the premises of Rivers State Television, RSTV with his security detail, abducted the Production Director, Glorious Abel and brutalized him for cutting short his sponsored program says the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ.

Mr. Abel is reported to have cut short the program of the clergyman on Wednesday after it exceeded the 30 minutes he paid for. The production was reportedly 38 minutes long.

Mr. Abel is said to be receiving treatment while the RSTV chapel of the NUJ condemned the act in a statement issued on Friday.

“The Executives and Members of Rivers State Television chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists received with dismay the news of the senior pastor of Dynamic Flame of Fire and Miracle Ministry,  Woji, Port Harcourt, Senior Prophet U.O. Miracle who invaded RSTV studio at odd hours of 11 pm on Wednesday 5th October 2022 with armed policemen to abduct the Operation Director (OP), Mr. Glorious Abel to an unknown place, tortured him and left him to his fate with the single reason that the OP stopped his church program which exceeded 30 minutes that is required,” read a statement signed by the Chapel’s Chairman, Joy Edmund and Secretary Justice Ihunwo.

The NUJ said it viewed the act as the “height of irresponsibility, impunity, rascality and hooliganism,” unbefitting of a clergyman, and wondered why he adopted a “crude way of addressing his grievances instead of going through the administrative process of laying his complaint.”

“The RSTV Chapel of NUJ is therefore calling on the government to step into the matter and ensure that the police bring the pastor and his accomplices to book to act as a deterrent,” the statement read.

The Clergyman, alongside one Rose Chichi John, is the registered trustee of his church which was incorporated on October 18, 2017, with a registered address at 11, Golden Valley Estate, YKC Woji and RC 101868.

He was on May 12, 2020, arrested by the Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Solomon Abel Eke for flouting the COVID-19 directives of the State Government after he held a deliverance service with more than 50 persons in attendance.