Nation
Murderer of knockout throwing boy in Imo: The good, ugly sides of Fr. Enyinnaya
The detained St Columbus Catholic Church parish priest, Amaimo, Ikeduru LGA, Imo State, Rev Fr (Prof) Joseph Enyinnaya, has always been in the public space, both for good and bad reasons.
To begin with, he is one of the most respected priests of the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri. This is because of his academically rich background following his attainment as a professor.
His journey to academic greatness was first discovered while he was still in the junior cadet enroute to priesthood at St Peter Claver Seminary, Okpala, Imo State. In 1987, when he was in class four, Enyinnaya, then a member of the drama group, became the cynosure of all eyes when almost all alone recited the play of Ola Rotimi’s ‘‘The gods are not to blame.”
The rector of the seminary at the time, the irresponsible Rev Fr (Dr) Anthony Onyeocha was highly excited at Enyinnaya’s brilliance that he made financial donations to him. In the next academic session, Enyinnaya who had assumed an admirable popularity as he was then a poster boy, was made the school’s canteen manager. Alongside kitchen boys, the position of a canteen manager was the most lucrative and most widely sought after whenever it was time to allocate functions to the junior seminarians.
Really, Enyinnaya was quite outstanding at his duty post as the school’s canteen manager. He transformed the school from a mere soft drinks and bread selling point to a mini super market where the students could easily buy any of their needs without seeking for permission to go to the nearby Orie Okpala Market. The way Enyinnaya developed the seminary canteen was an indication that his father or mother was a successful trader or he was brought up by one who ran a successful mini mart.
In spite of what looked like a super record as the canteen manager, Enyinnaya was accused of using the canteen to service the appetite of his friends and parishioners. Although these allegations never had sufficient evidence of prof, it was generally rumoured tha Enyinnaya became richer, so did his cronies.
After his ordination, Enyinnaya didn’t just find happiness and fulfilment in his exalted position as a parish priest. He went for further studies and bagged a Ph.D. That effectively distinguished him from most of his mates although there are few of his classmates now priests who also have Ph.Ds in various disciplines. After a while, he was posted to St Peter Claver Seminary as the rector.
Again, like in all of his endeavours, Enyinnaya’s reign as the rector at Okpala was greeted with mixed feelings. There were those who believed that he did excellent work while others insist he was a total disaster. “I don’t know why we always want to pull others down. I was at St Peter Claver Seminary when Enyinnaya was the rector. I was one of the Mathematics teachers. I observed things and I can tell you that he worked. He made the students to realize the importance of hard work especially in the area of taking their studies seriously. He restored discipline and made the institution a truly centre for the upbringing of priests”, an anonymous contributor stated.
Yet, Enyinnaya was heavily criticised by a few others. “Let me be plain, there was nothing Fr Enyinnaya did at Okpala. You cannot go there to behold any structure he built. He never maintained the existing ones as most of the infrastructure at Okpala started deteriorating during his era as rector. He might have been a wonderful scholar but he never translated it to leadership greatness”, another anonymous contributor enthused.
Almost like a thunder bolt from the blues, there was an alleged raging scandal against Enyinnaya following his exit from Okpala as rector. Either he was scammed or he was culpable – it was about a dirty sex video that went viral which emanated from his phone contact. Enyinnaya told those close to him that he was being seriously targeted by those who wanted to ruin him and his calling as a priest. Many said he was innocent, others maintain that luck ran out of him, perhaps, he watched sex videos and unfortunately that slipped out of his control.
All taken together present the beautiful as well as the ugly trajectory Fr Enyinnaya was elevated as the parish priest of St Columbus, Amaimo, Ikeduru. Even at the parish, Hallmark investigation revealed that he is being praised and also painted black.
The story of what happened at December 31, 2024 at the parish is now dovetailed. There are those who claim that Enyinnaya never shot at any knockout throwing youths. The Rev. father fired in the air to scare them. Meanwhile, the youths rushed him and attempted to dispossess him of his rifle. In the ensuing melee, the trigger was released and it killed an innocent fellow who was not involved in the imbroglio.
The youths went after Enyinnaya but was saved as he was whisked to Senator Sam Anyanwu’s (Samdaddy’s) country home. The other side of the story has it that Enyinnaya, embittered by the knockout fireworks shot and killed one of the boys throwing the banger. He was arrested and detained. The Imo State Police Command had since confirmed the story and promised to get to the roots of the matter.
However, the other interesting but also variegated angle of the story is the Ikeduru factor. Ikeduru is in Owerri Zone in Imo State and a part of the Catholic Diocese of Owerri. It produced the late Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Chief Evan Enwerem, Onyearugbulem, the Unogu’s and recently Samdaddy Anyanwu. These are great minds both in Imo as well as other Nigerian politics.
Each of them had one major stigma or the other against his name. For instance, Iwuanyanwu struggled too hard to extricate himself from the 1996 disturbances in Owerri even as he accused of masterminding the sudden death of Onyearugbulem in a Kaduna hotel during an APP convention. None of those allegations had evidence of proof.
Enwerem could not survive the stigma of a forged certificate and the notorious accusation of Evans and Evan – he was impeached as senate president. So also Samdaddy is fighting hard to retain his position as he national secretary of PDP.
And now, there is ecclesiastical disorder in Ikeduru following the arrest and detention of Fr Enyinnaya over a murder of a knockout throwing boy on December 31,2024.
