SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

On the heels of 10 mur­ders over the week­end, Opened Apos­tle Dr Vic­tor Jo­gee has called on the na­tion to fight the evil and dark­ness that has been per­vad­ing the land and de­cay­ing the so­ci­ety.

Jo­gee made the clar­i­on call at a Na­tion­al Day of Prayer at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence, Ma­coya, on Sun­day.

“Our peo­ple in Trinidad and To­ba­go are hurt­ing. They need heal­ing,” Jo­gee, of Liv­ing Word Chris­t­ian Cen­tre, told Guardian Me­dia dur­ing an in­ter­view.

Jo­gee said the hurt and pain stem from the up­surge of sense­less killing of our women and rise in in­dis­ci­pline and vi­o­lence in the na­tion’s schools.

“Our chil­dren are in trou­ble. Our schools are in trou­ble. Our par­ents are in trou­ble. Teach­ers are in trou­ble. Women are in trou­ble. Our na­tion is cry­ing out for help. Our na­tion is bleed­ing. There is a great cry for help in the coun­try,” he said.

In the midst of all the mur­ders, mad­ness and may­hem, Jo­gee said as a na­tion, “we must ral­ly to­geth­er to fight against this per­vad­ing scourge.”

Sun­day’s event was one of four na­tion­al prayer meet­ings to be held this year, Jo­gee said.

The prayer ses­sions will al­so roll in­to 2023 and 2024.

Jo­gee ap­pealed to oth­er re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions to join forces with them to com­bat the coun­try’s scourge of vi­o­lence.

He said cit­i­zens have been ask­ing where the church­es were in all of this “evil and dark­ness.”

“I be­lieve the church­es must take a stand be­cause the church is the le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the king­dom of God in our land,” he said.

Three weeks ago, Jo­gee said God spoke to him, urg­ing him to call these na­tion­al prayer ses­sions to be­gin heal­ing for the coun­try.

To host such an event, Jo­gee said, nor­mal­ly takes a year but be­cause of the di­rec­tion the coun­try was head­ing, it was or­gan­ised in a mat­ter of days.

Asked about the spate of mur­ders over the week­ends, where 10 peo­ple lost their lives, Jo­gee said this sent a sig­nal that all was not well.

“When Cain killed Abel, the voice of in­no­cent blood cried out to God. So, we have voic­es cry­ing out to God and we have come to join those voic­es to­day as a church. All the peo­ple who have been killed...they are cry­ing out.”

Jo­gee said he will con­tin­ue to pray for the pro­tec­tion of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and MPs.

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