An Akwa-Ibom-based pastor, Nsikanabasi Ese, has knocked down a Customs officer on Thursday, May 4, while trying to evade duties check.
Premium Times reports that the general overseer of Kairos Rhema Embassy, Uyo, 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.
“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 injured officer, Daneke Emmanuel, told journalists at Immanuel Hospital, Eket, where he was receiving medical attention.
Pastor Nsikanabasi Ese, pastor and founder of Kairos Rhema Embassy, Uyo
The pastor, Mr. Ese, was said to have sped off after hitting the officer. But when he saw that a Customs vehicle had started following him, he pulled over his brown colour Toyota Highlander.
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“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. 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,” another witness said.
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.
When the condition of the pastor was asked, 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.
One of the customs officials said that they suspected that the pastor was pretending to be in pains to forestall the possibility of him being charged to court.