Anglican Church to boost fish farming in Ogbotobo community
CONN/791205
Abuja, Dec.6, 2005- The pioneer Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of Western Izon, the Rt. Rev Edafe Emamezi has pledged the commitment of the Anglican Church to collaborate with farmers in Ogbotobo community in Bayelsa to boost fish farming in the area.
The pledge for the collaboration followed a request by the people of the community, whose main livelihood, fishing, was being threatened by ecological damage resulting from oil exploration.
In his maiden Episcopal tour to the area, Bishop Emamezi said the Church would float a Christian based economic empowerment scheme and source resources for beneficiaries.
He spoke about the self-financing vision of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and advised people to be alive to the wake-up call.
The Bishop urged the community to complement the initiative by coming up with a proposal on what they intended to do with the facility to be provided.
Pledging the commitment of the church to work with the Niger-delta community, Emamezi said that the Anglican Church would ensure that the benefit of their God given wealth was restored.
Earlier, a member of the Church, Tuesday Bernard, called for aid for indigenes of the community who had been rendered 'jobless' due to the pollution of their river.
He told Emamezi that Ogbotobo was a blessed community that produced 45,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
“With this, there ought to be development projects from oil companies and the government but there seems to be spiritual warfare between the agents of darkness and the hand of God in the community,” he said.
He therefore urged the Anglican Church to establish a self-help project that would give a life-line to the faithful in the community.
The community requested that a crusade be held in the area to arrest ” elements of paganism and atheist culture”.
The missionary diocese of Western Izon was inaugurated on Aug. 28, 2005.
