Thousands of the catholic faithfuls across the Diocese of Idah thronged to Emekutu, Ankpa Local Government, Kogi State, to offer special prayers for God’s mercy to intervene in the current hardship the people are facing.
The faithful led by the Bishop of the Diocese, Most Rev. Anthony Adaji, Msp, with the priests and the religious members, took out time under the scourging weather to conclude the 21-day novena started on the 26th of January, 2018 for the intervention for good governance.
Despite the scourging sun, people were not discouraged, spent hours in procession covering hundreds of miles at the Emekutu hill, with the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking for intercession for the people who have been so weighed down by the style of governance in the present dispensation, marred with pains, penury and uncertainty.
Bishop Adaji, in his address to the people saw God’s intervention as the only way out of the present state of things in Kogi and the country in general, noting that “the gathering is for peace in Nigeria and Kogi in particular, so that children could go to school, the sick could have access to good primary health care, those owed salaries be paid by those in authority with the milk of human sympathy.
He said, “we are not gathered in hate or sheer vendetta against anyone or government, but that whoever fails to listen to the warnings of God would suffer the wrath of God”.
Bishop Adaji further stressed that, “anyone who believes in diabolical means to ensure the sufferings of children of God will be rendered powerless through the procession and consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary”, praying that the Blood of Jesus would destroy wherever they go for their evil meetings.
The prelate considered the gathering as pilgrimage, a place of serious penance and prayer for a deep divine encounter, adding that no one who participate in this prayer, notwithstanding the scourging sun, would go empty handed as God answers the good prayers of every individual.
He further stated that this 21-day novena can never go unheeded since God answers the prayers of his children, saying that the present suffering is nothing compared to good that lies ahead, adding that God mercy will be showed on everyone.
Highlights of the day included a solemn Pontifical High Mass presided by the Bishop. Some of the participants who prayed, cried out lamenting their plight and relaying what people have being through in the past months stating that many people have died, homes broken, suffering on the increase as a result of the non-payment of salaries praying that God intervenes in the people suffering as he did in the time of Pharaoh’s Egypt, in scriptures.
He said that God has been able to intervene even in more difficult situations more than what Kogi is facing and will do same in the present circumstances, for men it may be difficult, but for God, nothing is impossible. It will take God no time to put the State in order, if, we cry to him.
