By Chuks Eke—
The Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha Archdiocese and Metropolitan of Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace, Most Rev. Valerian Maduka Okeke, has pledged to celebrate his Easter Sundays with inmates of Onitsha Custodial Centre on an annual basis to increase their faith, hope and confidence in God, and also give them a good sense of belonging.
Archbishop Okeke, who disclosed this Sunday at the Onitsha Custodial Centre during his pastoral visit, urged the inmates not to regret their being there serving various jail terms but to make good use of the opportunity of their being there to concentrate on their educational studies and skill acquisition to come out from the Custodial Centre in flying colours.
The Prelate, who pledged his homily during his pastoral visit to the centre on Easter Sunday, said the mystery of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be fully understood at a stretch by humans, but through a gradual process through fervent prayers and constant reading of the Bible.
He said even the apostles of Jesus Christ themselves could not fully understand the mystery of the resurrection until the Pentecost, to the extent that Thomas, one of the disciples, insisted on touching the wounds inflicted on the body of Christ before he could believe that it was the same Christ he knew that had resurrected.
He therefore prayed that the same tombstone that was rolled out by God from Christ’s tomb, which enabled Him to resurrect from the dead, would be rolled out from the lives of the inmates so that they would complete their jail term and come out better than they were when they went in.
He also pledged to always put the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service and his team in prayers to ask God to continue to bless and strengthen them in the process of serving their fatherland.
The Archbishop also commended the authorities of the Nigerian Corrective Service for finding him worthy to be bestowed the Grand Patronship award of the Service a few years ago, which gave him free access to visit any Custodial Centre of his choice in any part of the country, any time he wishes to do so.
He informed the inmates that he cooked 10 bags of rice with one cow for their Easter celebration, adding that a pi art from also coming with toilet tissues, tooth brushes and pastes, medicated soaps, laundry and tablet soaps laundry that would go round to all the inmates, he equally brought a live cow which would be slaughtered for them within the week to continue with their Easter celebration.
He congratulated Comrade Aloysius Attah of The Sun Newspapers, who celebrated his 18th Marriage anniversary ceremony with a Thanksgiving at the Custodial Centre at the same time as the pastoral visit.
The Drputy Comptroller of Nigerian Correctional Service incharge of Anambra state, Anselm Ike, in his vote of thanks, eulogized Archbishop Okeke for his love for both staff and inmates of the Onitsha Medium Custodial Center to the extent that apart from visiting them three times in a year, he also built skill acquisition center, brought distant learning centre and provided water and electricity for them in the center.
Ike therefore prayed God to continue to give him long life, good health and the strength to continue to do the good works he is doing at the centre.
Among dignitaries in attendance at the pastoral visit were Hon. Fred Ezenwa and Pat Okafor, representing Onitsha South 1 and Onitsha North 2 constituencies in Anambra state House of Assembly, as well as Chief Evarist Ubah, President of Catholic Men Organisation, CMO, Onitsha Archdiocese and immediate past Special Adviser, SPAD to Governor Chukwuma Soludo on Markets.
