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Remember Deketeke
Herald Correspondent
The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) yesterday confirmed the repatriation of United Methodist Church Zimbabwe’s resident bishop, Reverend Eben Nhiwatiwa citing violation of immigration laws.
In a statement by the Service Public Relations Officer, DCI KT Udo said that the Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service, with Ministerial approval, ordered his immediate repatriation from the country.
“On August 24th, 2024 Mr Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, a Zimbabwean Bishop, was apprehended in Yola, Adamawa State over violation of Immigration protocols,” reads the statement.
“The bishop arrived in the country on August 21st, 2024 with a Tourist Visa (F5A) meant solely for tourism purposes. However, he was discovered to be participating in the Methodist Church leadership election process which is in clear violation of the terms and privileges associated with the Tourist Visa as provided in the Nigeria Visa Policy 2024.”
However, Bishop Nhiwatiwa on Tuesday at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International airport denied being arrested in Nigeria and said what happened was a manifestation of what the church is going through.
“You know what is happening in the United Methodist Church there is a lot of misinformation particularly in Africa with others trying to blackmail the other side saying Nhiwatiwa supports homosexuality and that was the message that was spreading across Nigeria,” he said.
“The Nigerian authorities feared that I could be harmed, not because of homosexuality but by people who were pushing their agenda, decided to protect me and advised me that I should not go out without state protection.”
Rev Ande Emmanuel of the Southern Nigeria Annual Conference said Nhiwatiwa’s arrest was part of the wars between the UMC and the breakaway GMC.
“Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa arrived in Nigeria successfully and was cleared at the airport with a visa on arrival. He entered Nigeria to commence his visit. But the Global Methodist Church (GMC) breakaway faction led by John Wesley Yohanna reported him to the immigration that he came to promote homosexuality in Nigeria,” he said.
“The immigration officers in Yola, the capital city of Adamawa State, which (was) the first location for his visit, invited him and interrogated him for three hours (August 23) and put him under guard and this evening he was invited at their office again in Yola and was told that his attention is needed at the immigration headquarters in Abuja. They put him this evening on the plane with one immigration officer to Abuja to meet the Comptroller General in Abuja.”
Rev Gabriel Mususwa, general secretary of the United Methodist Africa Forum, alleges that The Global Methodist Church, and the Wesleyan Covenant Association are fomenting unrest throughout Africa by claiming the UMC has become “a gay church.” Homosexual practice is either socially taboo or illegal in many African countries.
The WCA’s Africa Initiative, headed by the Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia, has been implicated by other grassroots African groups as a source of dissension both before and after the 2020/2024 General Conference held April 23-May 3 in Charlotte, N.C.
During that meeting, the UMC’s highest lawmaking body voted overwhelmingly to remove church bans on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy and to eliminate language that declared homosexual practice “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
Online Reporter