It used to be a beehive of activities especially on Sundays when prominent Imo worshippers throng to the place to worship the God.
With beautiful apparels, each government official and their families struggle to out do each other in songs, praises, tithes and offerings, that was the days of Governor Rochas Okorocha.
Okorocha who on assumption of office built the elegant structure which he dedicated to God as the “Victory Chapel:, attracted the crème de la crame of Imo politicians and prominent men and women of God to the government house worship place.
Today, the Victory Chapel is a shadow of its former glory as the king that did not know Joseph has taken over as governor of Imo State. Governor Emekea Ihedioha, who detests every thing and anything that had to with his predecessor, characteristically distanced himself from worshiping at the Victory Chapel
An Anglican by denomination, Ihedioha has rather chosen to worship at the Assumpta Catholic Cathedral where His Lordship Archbishop Anthony Obinna holds away.
Although there is nothing wrong with this, Imolites have however frowned at the abandonment of the Victory Chapel which according to them was built with Imo money.
According to some of them who expressed their thought to the Sunday Nigerian Horn, there is nothing wrong for Ihedioha to worship at the Victory Chapel since we all claim to be Christians.
A pastor with a first generation church who would not want his name in print bemoaned the religious intolerance that is gradually creeping in among Christians in the state, questioning why the governor would abandon a church simply because it was built by his predecessor.
According to him, what Ihedioha needed to do was to call some men of God to re-anoint (re-dedicate) the church if he wasn’t comfortable instead of allowing it to rot away.
Also speaking, Pastor Ezekiel Manume who claimed that he is of the Pentecostal stork advised the governor not to dabble into religious politics by identifying one denomination over others, saying by worshiping at the Assumpta Cathedral during important events, the governor was indirectly saying that he favoured the church above others.
Pastor Manume would rather appeal to Imo people to see themselves as Christians no matter the denomination and disemphasis the issue of denomination as it concerns governance.
For now, observers would advise the governor not to allow the Victory Chapel to be destroyed since it was built by Imo money and not Okorocha’s money.
They decry the penchant for governors to abandon important projects simply because they were built by former governors, saying Imo state cannot grow with this type of wasting scarce resources.
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NIGERIAN HORN
