Indigenous Pastors Stage Spiritual Clash Against Century-Old Uzoiyi Festival of Umuoji People
- Indigenous pastors have organised warfare prayers in Umuoji, targeting what they call destructive spirits linked to the Uzoiyi festival
- Clerics described the festival as idolatrous, claiming it threatens destinies, spreads hopelessness, and misleads community members spiritually
- Spiritual interventions during the service included exorcisms, prophetic revelations, and symbolic blood sacrifices to counteract festival rituals
Sunday, March 8, was remarkable in Umuoji community, Idemili North local government area of Anambra state as indigenous clerics from the town organised themselves to hold what they called warfare prayers against "destructive spirits" associated with Uzoiyi festival in the town.
Source: Twitter
The Uzoiyi festival in Umuoji is a premier annual cultural event that celebrates Igbo heritage, specifically honoring the Idemili River goddess to ensure a bountiful harvest and rainfall for the farming season.
The festival serves as a vibrant, unifying event featuring elaborate masquerade performances, traditional music, and dance from the town’s 23 villages to showcase artistic ingenuity.
The festival is deeply tied to the farming calendar, offering sacrifices to the Idemili deity to bless the community with rain and prosperity.
It is renowned for featuring diverse, artistic masquerades (often representing animals, mythical creatures, and human motifs) from all 23 villages of Umuoji. Notable masquerades include Enyi Abidi, Ijele, and Ocha.
But the indigenous pastors interpret the festival differently as fétìsh, idolatry, and destructive.
Idemili goddess and Uzoiyi festival impact
The warfare prayer held at the Glorious Divine Grace Assembly, Ireh village, Umuoji, was convened by Chief Apostle Fidel Chimezie, President of Nigerian Ministers Project, with the Senior Pastor of Glorious Divine Grace Assembly, Apostle Tony Phillips, ministering.
The service featured mainly warfare prayers and exorcism, focusing on breaking strongholds of evil spirits, idolatry, and marine spirits in the lives and destinies of the Umuoji people.
Ministering during the prayer service, Apostle Tony Phillips described the Uzoiyi festival as a fétìsh tradition that encourages idolatry and the worship of a marine goddess, thus destroying destinies, infesting the people with hopelessness and evil, and taking sons and daughters far away from their God, the creator.
He said, "This prayer is very significant because many people in this land have been captured by the negative influence of the Uzoiyi festival. Many people are not yet aware of this negative influence on the Umuoji people. Many think it's just music, masquerades, and fun, but spiritually, it goes beyond ordinary festivity and display of culture."
"Every year, one week before the Uzoiyi festival, they go to the Idemili River to invoke the Idemili goddess, and the spirit will come out. Once this is done, nobody enters the river for one week, as the festival lasts."
Source: Original
Expressing the destructive disposition of the Idemili goddess, the cleric noted,
"I once saw the spirit in a revelation. When the spirit was called out from the Idemili River, I saw it moving around the villages in Umuoji. While it went around, it was throwing star apple (udara) as it went. And when it was going back, the spirit was picking the apples. As it was picking the apples, it was picking blessings, favour, fruitfulness, abundance, etc, while it was dropping destruction, shame and reproach, and poverty."
"In the course of our prayers today, I saw in the spiritual realm where they went to invoke the Idemili River goddess and blocked the river as they usually do; but as they invoked the goddess, I saw an angel of God as it came out. As the angel came out, it blocked the Idemili goddess so that it could not come out of the river to wreak its havoc."
Apostle Tony said that many leave Christianity today to go into what they call their tradition and cultural heritage. He argued, however, that activities such as those associated with the Uzoiyi festival are not pure Igbo tradition but have air of idolatry.
He argued that pure cultural heritage includes the people's way of dressing, what they eat, and how they think - not ceremonies laced in idolatry.
Spiritual implications of Uzoiyi festival
Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng correspondent after the prayer service, the Convener of the warfare prayer meeting, Chief Apostle Fidel Chimezie, said that the Uzoiyi festival may seem like a cultural event when viewed from the perspective of masquerades and flamboyant displays, but that it is a worship of idols and marine spirit.
She said, "When God opened my eyes, I saw that a lot of diabolical powers are involved in the festival; and the aim is to pull destinies down, and drag our people into nonsensical things."
"It is because of the negative influence of this festival on our people that God told me to organise this warfare prayer in one of my sons' churches, and to invite other ministers to stand in the gap, to pray against this evil influence."
"As Babalowo will stand in the gap and bring others to go to the river on a particular day before the Uzoiyi festival, to invoke the power of the Idemili goddess, and to dedicate the Umuoji people back to the marine kingdom. God has also commanded me to gather ministers with me, who will stand in the gap and pray against the evil influence of the Idemili goddess against our people."
"God has told me this is the time they'll be dedicating all the altars and all the diabolical things in our land, and that we should stand in the gap and pray against them.
"What we've done today is a ransom for the souls of our people. When matters are very hard and strong, arm yourself with blood sacrifice, just as we've done today, using a full ram. If you're going through a stubborn thing that refuses to stop, do a ransom sacrifice - you'll see it disappear."
"When God called me, He commissioned me to spoil anything they use blood to do against His people. Today, the blood of a full ram represents the blood of Jesus Christ, which God commands us to sacrifice to stop every blood sacrifice done against the Umuoji people in the name of the Uzoiyi festival."
Woman critiques Pastor Jerry Eze’s prayer style
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that a female prayer warrior, Abimbola, shared that Pastor Jerry Eze’s method of prayer does not align with her spirit, saying she struggles to pray effectively during his sessions due to the noise.
Abimbola clarified that she respects the pastor, calling him a good man, but personally finds his prayer style overwhelming, likening it to noise that distracts her from connecting spiritually despite being an experienced prayer warrior.
Source: Legit.ng
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