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The resignation of
the Catholic Archbishop of Benin Diocese, Richard Burke on Monday,
following an alleged sex abuse of a minor, has jolted the clergy and
laity in the denomination into renewing their agitation for his being
replaced with an indigenous priest.

Emmanuel Emovon, a
professor and devout Catholic who is championing the agitation, said
the Bini will certainly make a fresh presentation to the Catholic
Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican City, Rome, on the matter.

He explained that
the Bini now have well-qualified priests who can be bishops, even as he
named the Vicar General of the Diocese, James-Mary Okunbor, and the
incumbent parish priest of St. Maria Gorretti Catholic Church, Upper
Sokponba in Benin City, among others. “This time around, God will
answer our prayers as He answers and always hearkens to the prayers and
neediness of the oppressed,” he said.

When the former
catholic Bishop of Benin Diocese, Patrick Ekpu, retired owing to old
age some two years ago, the Bini people clamoured for a Bini priest to
replace him. It was said then that there was no qualified Bini priest
and the Pope did not want any ethnic crisis in Nigeria. As such, he
transferred Mr. Burke, the Irish Bishop, from Warri Diocese in Delta
State to Benin, as Archbishop.

However, Mr. Burke
has been out of Nigeria for more than one year now, with the church
saying he was sick. This was the official reason until this weekend
when it became known that the former Arch-Bishop was facing
interrogation over a sex abuse scandal in Ireland. He has resigned his
appointment.

But Mr. Burke’s absence in the country has delayed a lot of things
in the church, as over 10 deacons who would have been ordained priests
could not be ordained, as only the Arch-Bishop could ordain a priest.