The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, a Nigerian Christian religious sect is now facing serious crisis which turned violence following the prolonged succession crisis after the demise of the founder Olumba Obu.
Penpushing reports that this development had led to emergence of a faction and turned violent recently as angry worshippers in a branch in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, destroyed the portrait of Olumba’s first son, Rowland, who leads a faction of the sect.
The riotous situation equally paved way for the deceased’s daughter Ibum leading another faction, and in a video, which is being circulated on WhatsApp groups and Facebook, a man in a white cassock was seen yanking off Rowland’s portrait from the wall and smashing it on the floor amid cheers from worshippers.
Penpushing further reports that Rowland’s portrait which was hung near the late founder’s, was not attacked, but a woman’s voice was heard asking that Olumba’s first son portrait should be pull down, and in response the man in a white cassock smashed the glass frame on the ground.
“Bring it down!” a woman’s voice could be heard shouting in the background of the video as the man in a white cassock smashed the glass frame on the ground. This is who we are worshipping’, a voice said It is not clear when the incident happened.
Penpushing also reports that the sect’s spokesperson, Amah Williams in reaction disclosed that the incident happened in Uyo at the sect’s Nsikak Edouk Avenue branch, explaining that those behind the crisis belong to a breakaway faction called Brotherhood of the Cross and Star New Kingdom Ministry.
The spokesperson described them as rebels who do not want to accept Rowland’s leadership who he described as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords, His Holiness Olumba Olumba Obu”, and on what place Jesus Christ occupies in the Brother of the Cross and Star, he said Christ is the one that came with the new name Olumba Olumba Obu
“They are rebels. They rebelled; they rejected the rulership of the Kingdom of Christ. The holy image of our father is what we hold sacred. That same (Jesus) Christ is the one that came with the new name Olumba Olumba Obu If Olumba were to be a white man, black men would have gone to worship on his feet’, he added
Penpushing reports that over 1 million global members of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star do not see themselves as a church but as the new Kingdom of God on Earth, and they have also refused to admit that their founder had passed away as the sect has yet to announce his passing or publicly conduct his burial.
Meanwhile, Rowland and Ibum, with hundreds of their followers, are claiming the leadership of the 68-year-old sect after their father’s passing, causing a disastrous split in a once united and strong organisation headquartered in the Biakpan community in Cross River State of Nigeria.
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