By MATTHEW KALU, Umuahia

Members of Women At It Again (WAIA) got more than they bargained on Saturday when hoodlums invaded the arena where they were holding a prayer session and beat them up.

The prayer session, tagged Abia Women Mourn, was organised at Port Harcourt Road by Uratta Junction, Aba, to seek God’s intervention in the completion of the dilapidated Port Harcourt Road, as well as other roads being rehabilitated in Aba, and by extension, the entire state.

Women At It Again is the Women’s Wing of Africa in Praise Network (APNET) which is a body of Ministers and well-meaning individuals who are passionate for positive change in Abia.

The WAIA monthly prayer session which holds every first Saturday is tagged Abia Women Day Of Mourning. The December edition had the theme, “How Long O! Lord?”

The text taken from Isaiah 37:3: read: “This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke, and of blasphemy; for the children are come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth.”

At about 10 a.m., Saturday, the women had gathered at Port Harcourt Road by Uratta Road Junction, Aba, to conduct the prayer session they had been preparing for since early November.

However, the solemn assembly was scattered no sooner had it taken off as hoodlums invaded the venue and launched an offensive on the praying women, destroying their musical instruments and other equipment, thus disrupting the programme as pandemonium ensued.

Witnesses said shortly before the hoodlums struck, a set of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) staff, mainly women, were brought to the area, "pretending" to be attending to the heap of refuse in the area.

Shortly afterwards, according to the sources, a young man emerged and started making frantic phone calls.

Before long, young men encircled the area and asked the ASEPA women to leave “immediately.”

“As soon as the ASEPA women had left, hell was let loose and the hoodlums descended on the hapless, praying women, destroying their equipment and inflicting bodily injury on many,” a witness volunteered.

One of the women who craved for anonymity, said they organised the prayer to attack every spiritual problem hindering the realization of the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Road which the Ikpeazu administration embarked upon but appeared to have abandoned.

APNET explained, in an invitation letter to the monthly prayer session, that Port Harcourt Road by Uratta Junction was chosen as venue for the prayer session because of the deplorable condition of Port Harcourt Road.

The letter reads in part: “The deplorable state of Port Harcourt Road and its environs should be of utmost concern to everyone, particularly the churches within Port Harcourt Road.

“We have over the years taken cognisance of the insensitive natures of our governments and realized that nothing will change unless we cry out unto God and take collective responsibility.

“By this letter Sir, we request you use your good office to encourage your women to join the rest of us in this day of mourning. Who knows whether God will look on our affliction and show our land mercy.”

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