Trouble as Popular Pastor Trying to Evade Duties Check Knocks Down Customs Official on Highway

Posted by Odinaka on Fri 05th May, 2017 - tori.ng

A Customs officer serving in Akwa Ibom State has been critically injured after he was knocked down on a highway by a man-of-God who allegedly tried to evade duties check.

Pastor Nsikanabasi Ese

In an attempt to evade duties check on a highway, the pastor and founder of Kairos Rhema Embassy in Uyo, identified as Nsikanabasi Ese, on Wednesday, reportedly knocked down a Customs officer serving in Akwa Ibom State who is now critically injured.

According to Premium Times, the cleric was driving in an SUV along Eket-Ikot Abasi-Port Harcourt Highway, in Onna Local Government Area of the state, when he was reportedly flagged down by Customs officers at a checkpoint around 10.30 a.m.

While speaking to journalists at Immanuel Hospital, Eket, where he was receiving medical attention, the injured officer, Daneke Emmanuel, said; “He (the pastor) slowed down the vehicle, so we naturally thought he was pulling over.

“At the point that we were relaxed, he fired back the engine at full throttle, and before I could dive to safety he had already hit me.”

The pastor, was said to have sped off after hitting the officer. He pulled over the brown colour Toyota Highlander at a short distance along the highway when he noticed that a Customs vehicle was about giving chase, a Customs official who witnessed the incident revealed.

“He flung open the car door, walked away from the car and then suddenly slumped on the ground as though he was in great pains,” the witness said.

“As we were about to find out what was wrong with him, another occupant of the car jumped onto the steering and ran away with the car.”

The Customs team drove both its injured officer and the pastor to the hospital.

The injured officer, a deputy superintendent of customs, was complaining of pains in his waist region when journalists met him. He could not move his right leg and was assisted to sit on a hospital chair by two other Customs officials.

A medical doctor in the hospital, Dickson Okonjko, said he attended to the 51-year-old officer around 12 noon and had to give him an injection to relieve him of pains.

He said he had directed the officer be taken to a medical laboratory in Uyo, the state capital, where they could run some quick tests on him before treatment could commence.

When journalists enquired of the medical condition of the pastor, Dr. Okonjko smiled and then responded, “I have directed that x-ray should be done on him here in the hospital since he is complaining of chest pain”.

The pastor declined to comment on the incident when journalists met him in one of the wards in the hospital. An unidentified young lady was with him.