An Abia-based clergyman has enjoined residents of the state to pray hard to avert an impending politically-motivated bloody violence that would claim many lives in the state this year.

Bishop Uchechukwu Okorie of Divine Light and Glory International Church, Ugba Junction, Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of the state, said he got a revelation showing notable Abia politicians instigating crisis which snowballed into a bloody fight.

Speaking in an interview in Aba, Bishop Okorie warned that unless residents of the state prayed hard, there would be a remarkable bloodshed in Abia this year.

He said that God had revealed the bloodletting scene to him when 2015 was about to end as he was praying as he saw notable Abia politicians instigating crisis and that he and his church has been praying to avert such situation since the beginning of this year.

“Abia State has been in the valley and now that it wants to get off the valley, the spirit of the valley is resisting the efforts of the state to leave the valley,” the Bishop said, adding that if the revelation turns real, every person on the streets would be a victim.

“People from Onitsha, Owerri and Umuahia will come to join in the fight if it starts in Aba and it will be so deadly that markets will be closed and everyone on the streets will be a victim,” he said.

According to the cleric, the crisis would then be supported by forces of darkness which would push followers of the personalities involved to engage in killing and maiming of perceived opponents and their supporters.

He said that those who instigated the crises would withdraw and then allow their followers to die in the fight that would ensue as hoodlums living outside the state would be recruited to prosecute the deadly enterprise.

Bishop Okorie said he was moved to make this call through the media to save the lives of would-be innocent victims following the killings in Aba last Monday when security operatives clashed with pro-Biafra activists during a protest by the latter to press for the release of the leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr Nnamdi Kanu..

He assured that knowing how God shows Himself as real to him, if the people prayed against this impending doom, God would ward it off and restore peace in the state, and begged Abians to pray with him to avert the danger.

•Photo shows Bishop Uchechukwu Okorie.

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