- Yola IDP attended martyred Pst. Andimi’s wedding while Nigerian pastors were absent
- American guests stepped in to represent absent father of the bride
It was a day of mixed emotions as the daughter of murdered CAN official in Mubi, Adamawa state, late Pastor Lawan Andimi wedded in Makurdi, Benue State over the weekend.
In January 2020, Boko Haram rejected N50 million ransom for release of the bride’s father, Rev. Lawan Andimi, branch chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Michika Local Government Area in Adamawa State before executing him.
In a small wedding at St Peter’s Parish, Agnes Andimi, a recent graduate, married her schoolmate Gabriel becoming Mrs Egwurube.
Officiating priest, Father Pito queried the bride on the groom’s hometown and applauded her for correctly naming, “Agila, Ado Local Government, Benue state.”
However, he was taken aback when he asked the groom her origins and he answered, “Chibok, LG, Borno, State.”
Father Pito said he had never met anyone from Chibok then proceeded to ask the bride “if our girls are back.” He thereafter prayed for those still missing and those lost.
In attendance all the way from America were international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe and global humanitarian missionary Dr William Devlin, both recipients of US President Obama and President Biden’s volunteerism award respectively for their pro bono service to humanity.
“I have been in touch with the widow mama Mary Andimi from weeks after her husband’s decapitation by Boko when Dr Pst Paul Enenche hosted us and over 20 victims of terror in a press conference commemorating Leah Sharibu’s abduction anniversary in February 2020.
“When she invited me and I saw her daughter was marrying into my state and my local government area, I was deeply elated.
“I didn’t even know they were from Chibok till that day. I don’t know why God continues to join me with Chibok since I first sponsored another murdered pastor’s orphan from Chibok to US 10 years ago, then over 10 more Chibok girls in 2014 and the daughter of the murdered CAN Secretary of Borno in 2015,” Ogebe said.
On his part, Dr William Devlin broke down in tears following an incident after the wedding ceremony.
As post-nuptial photos were being taken, there was a moment of awkwardness as the MC announced “photo of couple with bride’s parents.”
As the widow Mama Mary Andimi joined the couple alone, it was suggested that her son be called to come and stand in place of his late dad.
At this juncture the US humanitarian duo Dr Devlin and Barrister Ogebe stepped in for the photograph.
A deeply emotional Devlin said, “ I can’t believe I got to stand in the shoes of a kingdom martyr. This is a once in a lifetime experience. I know he’s smiling in heaven that the body of Christ showed up for him, his daughter and his family.
I was quite shocked by the really low attendance. The choir were more than the guests.”
Lamenting, Ogebe said, “I am afraid of this country. With all the big churches and great pastors in this land, you mean none of them cared enough to show up or even help out the family of this great martyr who pleaded on camera for his ransom but said if not possible ‘good bye and see you in glory’?
“Every sector in this country has failed including churches. I am a Christian and have done more internationally for the persecuted than anyone living today in our generation so you can’t say I hate Christianity.
“In fact it’s because of my faith that I must call our people to order.
“I will be a hypocrite if I accuse Islamist terrorists of killing us then keep quiet when Christians are neglecting the widows and orphans of their own profession and body.
“In case you don’t know, Christ himself called the religious leaders to order and they killed him.
“One of my saddest experiences was when I asked a church to build a house for the mum of an abducted heroine, the excuses they gave me baffled me. I said so these are the kind of uncaring people I have been fighting for?
“Real Christianity is not bling and blowing grammar. James said pure religion is helping widows and orphans.
“I was grieved when I heard mama Mary Andimi was late to the wedding because the vehicle they took from Adamawa to Makurdi broke down.
“There are 5000 pastors in Nigeria that can bless her with a new car and they won’t even feel it.
“There are 10 pastors that could have sent planes to fly her for the wedding and back.
“I am afraid of Nigerian Christians honestly. We pray, make noise and show off but don’t show up for whom Christ holds dear. I am officially tired of this country.
“When we get to glory and God asks, ‘when my father died and I was wedding without him, why didn’t you attend?’ we will see what they have to say.
“Last time we visited Adamawa, it was house rent issue. How can widow Mama Mary Andimi be talking of house rent barely three years after her husband’s globally reported execution on video? Of a truth, some will reach heaven and God will say, ‘you already collected your own enjoyment on earth!’
“Dr Gideon Paramallam was represented by the Chaplain of Benue State University while the Chairman of CAN in the northern states who was out of the country urged the bride to apply for her national youth service with him.
It was a joyous event coming just a month after the burial of mama Mary Andimi’s own mother who recently passed away. The third anniversary of Pastor Lawan Andimi’s execution comes up just nine days after his daughter’s wedding. He was brutally beheaded on Christmas Day 2019 after his abduction by Boko Haram Terrorists in a chilling video circulated around the world. He is survived by nine children most of whom are still schooling. His widow, a farmer lost her farm during the Cameroun dam flooding that devastated the region and subsists on the 30,000 monthly salary given by his church denomination.
“I cried at the funeral of the great Nigerian intellectual, middlebelt hero and global diplomat Obadiah Mailafia not just because of the loss of a wonderful human but I wept for Nigeria which hounded one of its best and brightest to his death because he did not see the Nigeria of his dreams before he died. A few years later, the Nigerian ruling party said there was no Christian from the north with the competence to be Vice President (a spare tyre position even.) It’s not everything we must blame politicians for. Is it Tinubu’s fault that the church abandoned this family?””
Ironically, Mrs Tina Bitrus an IDP traveled all the way from Yola to attend the wedding.
“Tina who left her family in tents at the IDP camp to travel to Benue had met mama Mary Andimi last year during a trauma healing session organized by the US humanitarians on the anniversary of Leah’s death.
“It was so touching for me to see this lovely lady Tina who has lived in IDP camps for almost 10 years with no home of her own since the terrorists captured Gwoza make the sacrifice to come. Truly heaven will be full of surprises when some unknown faces get their reward because of how the touched the father’s heart and exemplified Christlikeness.
“I only hope the church in Nigeria does something to radically change the lives of Andimi’s family. That ransom they say CAN was ready to pay for his freedom should be paid to his family.
“Boko Haram used to pay the families of their suicide bombers N40 million each. Why is it that we cannot care for our own as commanded by scripture?
“The is the difference between the church in the north and the church in the south. Pastors in the north are ready to die for their faith while pastors in the south want to live off their faith.
“I therefore urge even Muslims and non-Christians who are against terrorism to help this family,” Ogebe concluded.
