Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka of the Enugu-based Adoration Ministry, is no longer allowed to dabble into matters pertaining to partisan politics from the pulpit, the Catholic Church has decreed.

In a letter to Mbaka, Callistus Onaga, Catholic bishop of Enugu diocese, also announced the conversion of the Adoration Ministry to chaplaincy. 

While Mbaka would still lead the chaplaincy, the Bishop can now appoint any priest “to assist the chaplains to oversee the pastoral activities of the ministry.”

Background 

Mbaka is famed for using his pulpit as a bully political platform.

The Catholic priest got into trouble in April after he called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign or be impeached by the legislature, amid escalating insecurity and poverty across the country.

The presidency responded by accusing the preacher of bitterness because he had been denied government contracts.

When summoned by the Diocese, Mbaka's followers staged a protest that led to vandalisation of the Bishop's home in protest of what they believed to be his sudden disappearance. 

Mbaka offered an apology after his followers vandalised the home of the Bishop and proceeded on a month-long prayer retreat afterwards.

The latest directives come as Mbaka is set to resume activities of the ministry which was suspended following his one-month private retreat.