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Vanguard claims that after members of the Great God Holy Tabernacle Ministry, a new generation church, demolished the Osuopele Temple, tensions are rising in the Ozobo community of Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State.

Prophet Tamarauebi Owan and his followers destroyed the temple, which was a hallowed place for believers of the Osuopele Deity. The community’s traditional worshippers have been extremely disturbed by this tragedy.

This is not the first demolition of its kind. According to Timipre Ndoni, the recently appointed High Priest of the Osuopele Deity, Prophet Owan started attacking the temple in 2019.

A 150-year-old healing tree, a representation of the Osuopele deity, was felled by Owan during a crusade he organised that year under the name Jesu Ode. Since there was no chief priest at the time, the temple lacked leadership, and nothing was done right away. In 2022, Owan did the same thing again.

However, when Ndoni was anointed as the new high priest in 2024, things took a different turn. “On March 6, 2024, I was installed as the chief priest of Osuopele, and I declared that we would not tolerate any form of religious intolerance,” Ndoni said.

After his installation, Ndoni and his supporters made an effort to interact with the paramount ruler and the Community Development Committee (CDC) chairman, asking them to step in and prevent Owan from entering the temple any more.re

On December 19, 2024, Prophet Owan returned to Ozobo with a new crusade, leading his supporters to demolish the Osuopele Temple once more in spite of these efforts. Despite denouncing the attack, Ndoni refrained from retaliating because he feared more bloodshed.

Ndoni said, “We have come out to seek justice and to ask whether there is freedom of religion and worship in Nigeria, We will soon file a lawsuit to enforce our fundamental rights and seek damages for the destruction of our temple.”

Ndoni added, expressing frustration over the situation, “People have begged the clergyman to stop, but he remains boastful, claiming that nothing will happen.”

Prophet Owan defended himself by saying he had no personal grudges against the traditional worshippers.

According to Owan. “I have no case with anyone. If idols or properties of a deity are destroyed, it is for the deity to fight for itself, If the idols cannot fight for themselves, why should humans intervene?”

He added that the community had discovered that the idols were no longer useful, so he had demolished the temple.

“This is not the first time I have destroyed the place; it has been happening over the years,” he said.

Owan, an Ozobo indigene, also questioned the worshippers’ legitimacy, posing the question, Who authorized them to worship this deity? It belongs to the community, and the leadership of the community has the final say.”

To stop the situation from turning into a full-fledged religious conflict, the Nigeria Police Force has been urged to act immediately by the Ijaw Cultural Heritage Centre (ICHC), a human rights organisation.

According to ICHC chairman Apostle Bodmas Kemepadei, Owan and his followers’ conduct violated the fundamental rights of Osuopele believers, which are protected by Section 38 of the Nigerian Constitution.

“This is a clear case of intimidation, harassment, and infringement on our rights to worship,” Kemepadei said.

He called for prompt action from the authorities, stressing that careful handling of the situation is necessary to prevent a more serious interreligious crisis.

“We are doing our best to calm the tempers of our worshippers, but we need the police to step in before this escalates further,” he added.

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