By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The new Permanent Secretary in charge of Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Barrister Samuel Ike, has disclosed how he lived with a life cockroach in his ear for four months.

He said that in those four months, the cockroach tormented him while trying unsuccessfully to gain entrance into his brain.

Making the disclosure during a Thanksgiving Service on Sunday at St James Anglican Church, Iyi-owa Odekpe, Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, Ike said that he was not only thanking God for elevating him to the apogee of his career, but also for saving his life.

Ike narrated: “I am not only here to thank God over my recent appointment as a Permanent Secretary. I want to thank Him because if not Him, I would have died before now.

“When I was driving one day, I noticed a something moving in my ear. It was a medium sized cockroach. I don’t know how it penetrated into my ear.

“It lived in my ear for four months. I visited a hospital at Obosi for two months before it was successfully removed from my ear. The doctor told me I would have run mad if it had succeeded in gaining entrance into my brain. It was brought out alive and killed by us.”

The permanent Secretary recalled several bad experiences he had encountered before his present appointment, including a circumstances that would have turned him into a cripple barely a week into his appointment.

Reacting to the testimony, the state Head of Service, Harry Uduh, urged the new Permanent Secretary to continue in his diligence to service as God would reward him more.

Earlier in a sermon, the Anglican Bishop, Aguata Diocese, Most Rev. Dr. Samuel Nwofor, charged Nigerians to always praise God’s name.

Nwofor, who presided over the service, along with prelates and other clergies, said only God could have saved the new Permanent Secretary, based on his narration.

He described the new Perm Secretary’s experience as the reason people should call upon God in any circumstance.