A popular Catholic priest in Nigeria, Father Ejike Mbaka has reacted to the allegations that he attacked some BBC reporters at his residence.

Recall thatWuzuNigeria reported that the priest was accused of assaulting BBC journalists Chioma Obianinwa and Nnamdi Agbanelo, as well as their driver, Ndubuisi Nwafor on Wednesday.

Reacting to the claims via a statement released by his spokesman, Maximus Ugwuoke, Mbaka said the reporters were mistaken for assassins after they were spotted secretly recording.

According to Vanguard, Ugwuoke revealed that the priest never invited the BBC team, neither did he have any prior knowledge of their visitation.

He added that the BCC team was led by an estranged priest of the ministry,  Father Cajethan Obiekezie, and they were confronted by the security team.

However, Ugwuoke noted that Mbaka’s timely intervention ensured that the confrontation didn’t go out of hand, adding that he facilitated the release of their seized equipment and not one left the premise injured.

His statement read:

“We make haste to state that the report was a carefully crafted mendacious narrative calculated to tarnish the image of Fr Mbaka who in his amiable nature could not have done or directed any of those alleged acts of assault on the BBC team or anyone as alleged against him.

“An eye witness account of what happened reveals that one Fr Obiekeze (Cajetan) who estranged himself from the ministry and made a viral video with BBC recently abusing Fr Mbaka and his perceived romance with President Mohammadu Buhari, came to join Fr Mbaka at the altar during his last Wednesday’s weekly ministry programme.

“Unknown to anyone in the ministry, the said priest came with some persons with an unknown identity who were secretly recording the day’s ministry programme until they were accosted by the ministry security suspecting them to be assassins on a surveillance mission. The said ministry security seized the equipment of the strange fellows and sought to know their identities.

“Later in the evening after Fr Mbaka was through with the programme and retired to the parish house to continue his consultation with worshippers waiting to see him, altercations between the fellows and the security men at Fr Mbaka’s parish house drew Fr Mbaka’s attention to them and his timely intervention helped to save the situation.

“Fr Mbaka was surprised when the unknown fellows identified themselves as coming from BBC with Fr Obiekezie. Surprised by such obvious betrayal and stage-managed visit from a fellow priest, Fr Mbaka directed that every of their seized equipment be returned to them and made sure no one hurt either the priest or the unknown visitors he surreptitiously came with.

“Fr Mbaka nor the ministry never invited the said BBC team to the ministry neither was Fr Mbaka nor the ministry notified of their presence by anyone as alleged.”