By Leo Igwe
The Advocacy for Alleged Witches urges state authorities, the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, and other religious bodies to call Pastor Paul Enenche to order over his reckless and irresponsible preachings, and his incitement of hatred and violence against alleged witches. This statement follows a recent video circulating on social media where Enenche invoked the Biblical injunction to “suffer not a witch to live”.
In the video, Enenche, a Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Abuja, Nigeria, claimed that someone brought him a bottle of oil to pray over. The person said that her sister-in-law was having some difficulty conceiving and wanted him to pray on the bottle of oil so that she would travel and anoint her with the oil so that the sister could conceive. Enenche claimed that he prayed, and the woman traveled and anointed the woman. The day she returned, a notable ‘witch’ in her village appeared in a dream and said to her: “Who sent you to go and pray to those people”. Enenche noted that when the woman woke up she noticed some marks on her legs, like Chinese and Japanese writing. The woman later came to see him complaining about the incident. Enenche claimed he told the woman that this relative had appeared and confirmed she was a witch. That his Bible said: “Suffer not a witch to live”. That the woman had expired. Enenche further noted that the day this woman left him, the alleged witch slept and never woke up the following day. That the alleged witch reported in hell fire”.
That means the alleged witches died. Enenche lies openly and publicly. He cannot make a distinction between fact and fantasy in his preaching. Enenche makes up stories to justify anything. including a claim that a woman without a womb got pregnant through his prayers.
State and religious authorities should take measures to restrain Enenche from engaging in reckless preaching and pronouncement. From all indications, Enenche is a charlatan and a Pentecostal loose cannon. Recently he has been in the news for mischievous reasons. If Enenche is not staging miracles and faith-healing performances, he lies to his followers. He claims he has divine powers. He pretends to be in communication with God. In this video, he fraudulently claimed he had the power to pray and make some oil sacred enough to make an infertile woman conceive. Enenche reinforced the superstitious belief that supposed witches can inflict marks on the body when people are sleeping. Incidentally, these claims are untrue and baseless. Marks that people have on their bodies after sleeping have no link to witchcraft, as popularly believed. While alluding to the Bible, Enenche incites violence against alleged witches, urging his followers and members to not suffer a witch to live.
The Advocacy for Alleged Witches urges Nigerians to be vigilant and not allow pastors like Enenche to deceive and mislead them. Nigerians should be critical and skeptical of the preachings and pronouncements of Paul Enenche and other so-called men and women of God who use the name of God to exploit and manipulate their followers, members, and other gullible and ignorant folks.
Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches.