Itigidi, headquarters of Abi Local Government Area, Cross River State, has been upbeat since yesterday, following the arrest and public parade of Paul Abam, founder and pastor of Word Base Prophetic and Deliverance Ministry, for putting together and executing a scam that would have gravely threatened the peace of the community.
Sources in the community told www.calitown.com that Abam, had called a community member, one Eja Tita, and informed him that he was coming to his work site to pray for him over a revelation he got. When he arrived the site, he demanded that all work be stopped and workers instructed to leave the site. That done, prayers began before further instructions that a particular spot within the site be dug out. Fetish articles were exhumed from the spot along with a piece of paper with Tita’s name and those of his siblings written on it. On the heels of this discovery, Abam reportedly sold anointing oil to Tita for N50, 000 (fifty thousand naira), adding too that two doves, male and female, had to be purchased for cleansing. Abam’s doves were to be sold for N270, 000 and N250, 000, respectively.
This incident resulted in the shutting down of the site and near sacking of all workers there, but for the timely intervention of some of the elderly workers who informed Tita that in the last couple of days, Abam’s acolyte, one Tom Eden, has been making suspicious visits to the site. Investigations within the community, corroborated the story of the workers, reasonably forcing the local monarch, Eval Nelson Asikong and some elders to take a closer look at the case. Eden was accosted and after the community grilled him, he owned up, spilling that Abam was behind the scam and several others that had taken place in several other places, overtime.
With the co-operation of some youths and the monarch in nearby Ugep, Abam was taken from Ugep to Itigidi, to dance to the music. As it is normal with crimes of this nature, the pastor was stripped of his clothes, clad in plantain leaves, draped in charcoal and paraded round the streets of Itigidi, the home of former CRS governor, Liyel Imoke.
A background check carried out by www.calitown.com revealed further that Abam, who originally was of the Presbyterian Church, broke ranks with the church and established his own after it became clear that he no longer could conform or respect the dogma and workings of the church. On his Facebook page, two videos of him ministering with miracles, to a cheering crowd are available. Church members we hear are now covering their heads in shame.
