Nkoro indigenes go for restitution
By Alice Micah
There comes a time in everybody's life that one needs to look back from where he is coming, especially when all seem no to be going well, with a view to righting every wrong.
Even the Bible talks of restitution, a command that God gave to pay back what was wrongly collected or done to someone.
This was what happened at Nkoro in Opobo/Nkoro local government area of Rivers State on the 26th of December 2008, where the Kirika people decided to gather at the Alapu square and pray for God's forgiveness for a curse they believed had followed them and hampered their wellbeing for over 400 years.
It is no more news in Nigeria that early Christian missionaries were vehemently resisted by most of the tribes in Nigeria, and Nkoro was not an exception to that development.
According to what this reporter gathered, the Nkoro people were believed to have lived a life of backwardness over the years as a result of the misdeeds they meted out to the early missionaries. Not only did they resist the Christians, they went as far as burning their Bibles.
But in trying to right the wrong, the Nkoro people, during their National Day Celebration decided to invite a man of God to pray and break the yoke, not only that they went ahead to buy Bibles to all churches in the community as a way of restitution. Also a Bible was bought to be kept at the palace of the Alapu as a sign of authority.
In his confessional speech, Spokesperson of the community, Alabo Rogers Ibibo said the restitution became necessary to break the yoke of the curse that had followed the people all these years, as “God also said in the bible that I will visit your iniquities to your third and fourth generations”.
During his preaching at the event, Apostle Ben Offiong, President of Africa Arise Prayer Network, called on the people of the community not to go back to their previous ways, saying confession was the only way to forgiveness and breakthrough.
He said by restituting the Bibles, God was faithful and just to forgive them and grant the community their heart desire. He prayed and anointed the community so as to break the yoke.
Speaking to newsmen after the prayer session, the Alabo Ibibo said though the present generation was not part of the action, they were told that the community burnt Bibles when the missionaries came.
“We were not there when it happened, but we were told that it happened at about 1914. That was when the early missionaries came to preach the gospel. When they came in, they tried to preach the gospel and people around here who were ignorant of the instrument of the gospel saw them as bringing in foreign gods, gods they don't understand and as a result, they burnt their Bibles”, he said.
Alabo Ibibo said not only were Bibles of the missionaries burnt, King Jaja of Opobo had laid a curse on the people when a man he demanded to train was brutally murdered by the people, pointing out that this must have also contributed to the problems of the people.
He said the community had at various occasions prayed over the issue, but that he believes this was going to be the last straw that would broke the camel's back.
Alabo Ibibo advised people to refrain from idle worship and evil acts, especially to strangers, saying, “We should be our brother's keeper and do good to all, except if the person is evil then you can avoid him. But allow strangers to come, because strangers actually help to develop a place. Stubbornness is an ill-wind that blows no man any good”.
