By Okechukwu Onuegbu
The newly appointed Permanent Secretary, Anambra State Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Barr. Samuel Chinedu Ike, Sunday, said he was inflicted with strange sickness leading to him been crippled for four days after his appointment.
Ike, who also recalled how he was sleepless for four days same period over unknown circumstances, explained that he was able to recover from those 'spiritual attacks' due God mercy and Grace towards him.
"I am not the type that gives testimony. But whenever I listen to people testimonies, I feel elated to give mine. But I know that their testimonies are less than 1% compared to what God had been doing for me. Barely one week after my appointment as Permanent Secretary, I became crippled. But after prayers from my Bishop, God had mercy and Grace on me and regained myself," he stated at a Thanksgiving service held at St. James Anglican Church, Iyi-Owa Odekpe, Ogbaru Local Government Area.
The event was attended by decreme de la creme in Anambra State government and beyond including Hon. Chukwuma Onyema of Ogbaru Federal Constituency, religious leaders and others.
“I am not only here to thank God over my recent appointment as a Permanent Secretary. I want to thank Him because if not Him, I would have died before now. When I was driving one day, I noticed a moving something in my ear. It was a medium sized cockroach. I don’t now how it penetrated into my ear. It lived in my ear for four months. I visited a hospital at Obosi for two months before it was successfully removed from my ear. The doctor told me I would have run mad if it had succeeded in gaining entrance into my brain. It was brought out alive and killed by us,” he added.
The permanent Secretary said there are other things God had done and still doing for him.
Speaking in an interview after the service, the Anambra State Head of Service, Barr. Harry Uduh, urged the new permanent Secretary to continue on his diligence to service as God would reward him more.
Earlier in a sermon, the Anglican Bishop, Aguata Diocese, Most Rev. Dr. Samuel Nwofor, who presided over the service amidsts other clergies and prelates, charged Nigerians to always give thanks to God irrespectively of circumstances they found themselves.