Religious War Looms in A’Ibom

A religious war between two Pentecostal churches in Akwa Ibom State is looming, following threats by a pastor in the state, Nyeneime Andy, to evict another pastor, Dr Abel Damina, from the state.
Andy is the General Overseer of the Holy Ghost Ambassadors Ministry as well as the state chairman of the YPP, the political party that gave the PDP a fight for their money in the 2023 gubernatorial election.
Also, Andy, a controversial pastor, had been at loggerheads with the state government when his church was marked for demolition for demolition in August last year.
A few days ago, Andy called out Damina, General Overseer of the Power City International Church and celebrated tele-evangelist, accusing him of false teaching and blasphemy and threatening to chase him out of Akwa Ibom if he failed to stop his line of teachings.

The offensive teaching, according to Andy, was that Damina preached that “when Elijah prayed and call down fire, it wasn’t God that answered that prayer, it was Satan.” Andy is angry that Damina’s teaching was false and misleading and that the celebrated preacher who hails from Kaduna State, must be forced out of Akwa Ibom.
Andy said in his social media post that Damina must leave Akwa Ibom where he has lived and carried out his preaching business since 1992. Ironically, the state government had, in 2017, given a certificate of origin to Damina and recognised him as a son of the state, specifically from Itu Local Government. The name, Unwana, wasgiven to him as his Akwa Ibom name.
But Andy told Damina to “leave pastoral work. You cannot continue deceiving people in my state. If you continue like this, we will have no other option than to ask you to leave our state and preach this heresy in your own state. Our people will not tolerate you deceiving them any further.
“But if you refuse, then you will have yourself to blame. We have been quiet for too long and it is getting worse. With due respect Sir. Thank you for returning to the you that we knew. You used to bless us with your messages but now we don’t understand what you are teaching.”
The development is causing panic in the state. While people have feared that Andy’s threat may lead to a religious war between his followers and those of Damina, others have warned Andy to tread carefully, as he had no such powers to chase someone out of the state.
When contacted over the telephone, Damina however laughed over the threat as said Andy was looking for attention.