Brotherhood crisis turns violent as worshippers reject Olumba’s successor

The prolonged succession crisis in a Nigerian Christian religious sect, the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, has festered on since its founder, Olumba Obu, passed away.

The crisis turned violent recently as angry worshippers in a particular branch in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, became riotous, destroying the portrait of Olumba’s first son, Rowland, who leads a faction of the sect.

Olumba’s daughter, Ibum, leads another faction.

A video, which is being circulated on WhatsApp groups and Facebook, captured a man in a white cassock yanking off Rowland’s portrait from the wall and smashing it on the floor amid cheers from worshippers.

Rowland’s portrait was hung near Olumba’s, but the angry worshippers did not attack the latter.

“Bring it down!” a woman’s voice could be heard shouting in the background of the video as the man in a white cassock smashed the glass frame on the ground.

“This is who we are worshipping,” a man’s voice could be heard shouting repeatedly as the camera panned and then focused on Olumba’s portrait on the wall.

It is not clear when the incident happened.

Amah Williams, the sect’s spokesperson, said the incident happened in Uyo at the sect’s Nsikak Edouk Avenue branch.

Rowland and Ibum, with hundreds of their followers, are claiming the leadership of the 68-year-old sect after their father’s passing, causing a disastrous split in a once united and strong organisation headquartered in the Biakpan community in Cross River State, Nigeria’s South-south.

‘They are rebels’

Mr Williams, the sect’s spokesperson, told reporters on Saturday in Uyo that those responsible for the incident belong to a breakaway faction called Brotherhood of the Cross and Star New Kingdom Ministry.

He described them as rebels who do not want to accept Rowland’s leadership – he did not call Rowland by name as Olumba’s successor is revered among worshippers as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords, His Holiness Olumba Olumba Obu”.

“They are rebels. They rebelled; they rejected the rulership of the Kingdom of Christ,” Mr Williams told reporters.

“The holy image of our father is what we hold sacred,” he said, apparently referring to the destruction of Rowland’s portrait.

A reporter asked the spokesperson what place Jesus Christ occupies in the Brother of the Cross and Star.

“That same (Jesus) Christ is the one that came with the new name Olumba Olumba Obu,” responded.

“If Olumba were to be a white man, black men would have gone to worship on his feet.”

The over 1 million global members of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star do not see themselves as a church but as the new Kingdom of God on Earth. They have also refused to admit that their founder had passed away as the sect has yet to announce his passing or publicly conduct his burial.