“I have finally accepted God’s calling to preach salvation of souls through Christ Jesus, and to witness to the power of the Resurrection….”
Those were the words of John Udoedehe, a well-known opposition politician in Akwa Ibom State, who announced on Facebook, April 29, that he was now a pastor.
Probably, sensing that people could misinterpret it as retirement from politics, Mr Udoedehe, a former senator, added the phrase “….alongside my political and business career, as a role model to this generation” to his Facebook post.
Photos of Mr Udoedehe preaching to congregants and administering Holy Communion have flooded Facebook.
Mr Udoedehe is one of the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom. He has contested for the APC governorship ticket in the state, at least twice.
The former senator, then a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member, directed the campaign for the election of Godswill Akpabio as governor in 2007.
He fell apart with Mr Akpabio and left the PDP for the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) where, as the party’s governorship candidate, he contested the 2011 election against Mr Akpabio.
Mr Akpabio won re-election, but Mr Udoedehe almost lost his life when he and his campaign team were violently attacked in Ikot Ekpene, March 2011, by thugs suspected to have been hired by the PDP.
Some of the ACN supporters were killed in the attack.
Mr Udoedehe, ironically, was subsequently arrested, detained, and charged to court for murder and arson by the Akwa Ibom State Government, but was later discharged and acquitted.
The former senator after his incarceration continued as a voice of the opposition politics in Akwa Ibom, while Mr Akpabio became a PDP senator, representing Akwa Ibom North-West.
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