By Frank Ulom
CALABAR (CONVERSEER) – Two self-acclaimed preachers on Wednesday turned a popular motor park in Calabar, Cross River State capital, into a WWE ring over largese.
The incident which happened at the Bekwarra Motor Park at Etta-Agbor, Calabar Municipality, shocked travellers, who questioned the true nature of their preaching.
An eyewitness account claimed that the rite of who collects the money led to the fight between a young preacher and an elderly one.
According to one of the eyewitnesses, Inah Adie, on Thursday, “Two preachers were at each other’s throats, not over doctrine, but over who had the divine right to preach to passengers. Imagine! The gospel turned into a bus-stop Evangelical Wrestlemania.
“When I first entered the park, I noticed a young man. He was neatly dressed in a starched white long-sleeve shirt, well tucked into his black pants, with a pair of ‘I’m-tired’ loafers clapping the ground like they had survived a hundred evangelism crusades.
“At first glance, I mistook him for a recently Bammed NBM or Aye member until he began preaching to the passengers of a bus that left just before ours.
“Just as our own bus was about to load, enter Act Two: an elderly preacher, somewhere around fifty, whose grey hair had clearly memorised the Psalms.
“He cleared his throat and positioned himself, ready to deliver the Word. But before the first ‘Praise the Lord’ could even settle in the air, the young preacher reappeared, claiming it was his slot.
“That was when the quarrel began. Words flew faster than Bible verses. The old man, in righteous indignation, labelled the young fellow ‘the devil’s incarnate’. The young man, not to be outdone, responded with a holy shove that bounced the elder out of the park like a stubborn goat.
“And then, without shame, the young man dusted himself and climbed back to our bus to begin his sermon. That was when I asked the only question that mattered:
“Brother, are you preaching to win souls for Christ, or are you preaching to satiate your stomach?
“The words hit him like thunder. His face tightened, his voice cracked, and before we could say ‘Amen’, he abandoned the mission and stormed off. I later saw him wandering down IBB Way, his starched shirt still shining, but his evangelism clearly deflated.
“As for the driver who left Calabar by 10 AM yet somehow delivered me to Bekwarra at 8 PM—that is a story for another day,” Adie narrated.
Converseer reports that some of the preachers at the motor parks do request money from passengers after preaching or praying for them.
