By Christel Youbi (UB Journalism Student On Internship)
Two unknown men, passing for missionaries, last week duped a University of Buea student of FCFA 20,000 and two mobile phones.
The student, whose only name we got as Mimi, was returning from prep at the campus when she met the "men of God" on Malingo Street. She told this reporter that she met a man in his fifties, who told her he was a missionary from abroad, who had come with some white friends.
Mimi said the man claimed he was looking for the Bulu Blind Centre where he wanted to help the handicapped there and requested her to direct him to the place.The girl said while they were conversing, another man (younger) joined them, claiming he had met the man before and could direct him to the centre.
Mimi added that the man expressed thanks for the time she had spent listening to him and told her he had nothing to give her but for some US dollars and prayers. As she was politely dismissing the older man, the young man asked her to stay awhile for some prayers and blessings.
Mimi told The Post the man began praying but stopped, saying the surrounding was obscuring his vision and asked them to move to a quieter and darker area. With assurances flowing from the "missionary's mouth, the trio moved to a dark corner, where the impostor asked her to show her hands and instructed her to spit in them.
She said the man then shook her hands as if in greeting. When she removed her hands from his, she saw spit on the back of her hands and the man said it was a bad sign.
Thus, began the Palm reading.
"Somebody in your family wants to make you blind," Mimi recalled the man telling her, adding that whenever she returns from school she cannot recall what was taught and that she had regular menstrual cramps because she was poisoned and that she might not have children in futureā¦
"I was speechless and could not understand why I was listening to his abracadabra or if I was hypnotised," said Mimi. The "man of God" then asked her to go fetch some water and asked if she had some money in the house that they could bless and to bring another phone to save his number in it, in case he wanted to call her later.
Mimi said she told them she had no money and they suggested she go borrow some, telling her to give him her phone because he claimed she could be assaulted at night."I rushed to the house at about 11 pm, borrowed some money from the neighbours and took some water, too," Mimi said.
Then the ritual began. The younger man, who had fetched some water in a plastic paper, gave FCFA 128,000 and two phones to the man "for benediction," and asked her to do same. Mimi said she gave FCFA 20,000 plus two phones, which the man wrapped in a cement paper and "blessed" it.
"He turned the paper several times and prayed very fast and asked me to open my bag when I reached home," Mimi told The Post. Later at home, she opened the bag and to her greatest dismay, found only stones.
Pastor Massock Predicts Occult Initiation On February 11
By Olive Ejang Tebug Ngoh
Rev Emmanuel Massock, erstwhile pastor of Presbyterian Church Kumba Mbeng, has predicted a massive occult initiation of students during the Youth Day celebration on February 11.
Rev. Massock
Massock, who is presently doing Masters in Theology at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, spoke to The Post, January 28. He said God revealed to him recently that during the 2009 Youth Day celebration in Kumba, youths would be initiated into the marine and occult kingdoms. This, he said, would be done through the sharing of sweets, biscuits and other chewable by students to their mates, thereby provoking massive initiation in the form of trance.
The pastor said the devil has changed his channel of operation with children placed at the forefront of the operation.He explained that the marine initiation, mostly common among girls, takes place when a mother in the kingdom gives something to a female child. After consuming the gift, Massock said, the child is immediately initiated as a member of the marine kingdom.
According to him, from membership, the child grows to an agent and is commissioned to initiate others. He said the agents cause accidents, illnesses, pull wealth from the earth's surface and multiply their membership through initiation.
The pastor added that from an agent, the person would become an executive member, which is the ruling body in the marine world and only intervene at difficulties during their operations.
He recalled that, recently, in a primary school in Douala, a child confessed how he was sent to cause destruction in the school but prayers couldn't allow him to operate. He also referred to the recent happenings in GHS Nkambe where many students went into fit, as an indication of initiation.
The man of God who says he had been at war with the spiritual world prescribes intensive and collective prayers in private and public schools. He suggested that during the February 11 celebration, the Kumba administration could organise an ecumenical service to quell down the marine and occult powers from destruction.
Massock said he has encouraged individual prayer groups who shall penetrate the crowd on that day, preaching the word of God. He hoped this would limit the initiation on students.
He said parents should remain prayerful and shouldn't visit juju houses when they suspect that their children have been initiated.As to what he does as a student in the seminary, Massock said he spends more time ministering in conferences and crusades in Cameroon and abroad.
He hoped that the increasing spiritual awareness in Kumba would culminate in a wave of national revival in Cameroon.
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This article generated a lot of controversial discussion a few weeks ago because some of us were against this superstitious poisoning of our minds by some of these men of God. One was predicting occult initiation on February 11th and another was claiming the presence of sorcery in someone's family.
Posted by: Ted | Friday, 27 February 2009 at 06:45 AM
Ted,
I think there is absolutely no relationship between Rev. Massock and the impostors mentioned above. You seem to take the impostors for men of God. They are bandits.
Mimi must be a very naive girl. From the narration, only the gullible could have fallen to such a trap. She must be very very inexperienced and will come out of this incident with something having learnt that will help her in future.
Posted by: Fon. | Friday, 27 February 2009 at 09:25 AM