The Human Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders'Foundation (HURIDE) and Campaign for Democracy (CD) South East Zone have jointly condemned the assault on an Onitsha Pastor,Chukwuemeka Ohanaemere alias (Odumeje Ndaboski) by the taskforce of Anambra State Government yesterday.
In the statement signed by the Executive Director of HURIDE and Chairman of CD in the South East, Dede Uzor A. Uzor, the group said it the action of the taskforce was unwarranted, a clear display of executive lawlessness and an insult to the man of God.
Odumeje is the founder and General Overseer of the Mountain of Holy Ghost Intervention Deliverance Ministry , Fegge, Onitsha.
He was manhandled by one of the security operatives in the team of those who demolished his church for being on drainage channel along Bida Road.
But the rights groups through Dede Uzor said the action of the security man was crude, uncivilized and uncalled for.
They expressed shock that this uncivilized action came from a government that pride itself of being run by an educated and well exposed person like Prof. Chukwuma Soludo.
The group asked Governor Soludo to go beyond mere rhetorics and recruit civilised individuals who will carry out his policies and programmes, warning that the actions of agents of a leader goes a long way to show how a leader h assessed by the public.
The rights group queried the relationship between demolishing Odumeje's church and his physical abuse, saying that the whole thing smacks of people drunk with power and Iman of Muslim clerics will be meted with such humiliation
Odumeje as a citizen deserves his fundamental rights to be respected, not to talk of the fact that he is a Pastor and popular among the people.
The groups said it is not enough for the Governor to condemn the action of his team but he should go further to formally apologise to the Pastor as well as remedy the unwarranted abuse.
It is very unprofessional to start the drainage from the centre where the erosion has not caused serious problems instead of Okpoko, Silas works via Creek Road leading to Odumeje's Church.
These lines were not followed before destroying Odumeje's section of the Church.