Malawi police rescue ‘Jesus’ from mob justice: Preacher claims to be ‘Son of God’

Police in the lakeshore district of Mangochi rescued a self-styled ‘Jesus Christ’ from an angry mob.

Mangochi Police Station Spokesperson, Inspector Rodrick Maida, confirmed that ‘Jesus’ Saidi Pious, 40, preaching  near Mangochi Four Ways Robots made claims that he was Son of God  and that his second coming as promised was now due.

The preacher, clad in a white rob with red horizontal stripes, made people who were passing by to stop in their tracks when he made the claims and soon, the scattered ‘congregants’ closed in on him and started to quiz him.

But the man, who had mounted a mobile Public Address system comprising two small horn speakers and an amplifier to aid his gospel, insisted that he was Jesus Christ and that it was up to the people to accept it or not.

Maids said people were not happy with his presence and wanted to assault him.

“The people are not happy with his claims that he is Jesus so they wanted to evict him,” he said.

Maida said police were tipped that a mob was about to descend of ‘Jesus’ and had to evacuate him from the place.

“The officers managed to contain the irate mob and took a motorbike for the preacher to be taken to the station, his mobile PA system and bicycle followed later in the police vehicle,” added Maida.

Religious leaders and Christians have condemned his claims as blasphemous.

“We found it very annoying, disrespectful and intolerable for one to make such claims so we wanted to teach him that he can choose to be whatever he would like but not to make fun of sacred names – that’s a blasphemy,” said one of the eyewitnesses who only identified himself as Jaf.

The police spokesperson said when he was interrogated at the station, Pius gave “uncoordinated statements” which made the law enforcers suspect him to be mentally unstable, a condition his brother, Witness Pius, confirmed when he was later summoned to the police.

The police found it not safe enough to set Pius free until hours later when the ‘congregants’ who had followed and were lurking around the police premises had dispersed.

Around the same time of the year in 2006, one Raphael Matiki made headlines with similar claims in Blantyre’s Chilomoni Township which angered the residents. They evicted him from the township.

‘Jesus’ Matiki as he was popularly known, fled to Machinjiri with his four wives and ‘disciples’ where he was also descended upon for the same claims by angry residents.

He was also rescued by police who took him to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital for medical examination but he discharged himself saying, as Jesus, he needed no mortal treatment.

Matiki had disciples with the names of their biblical predecessors like ‘Simon Peter’.

Unlike the original Jesus of Nazareth, some of his disciples were  women and he claimed this time around salvation will come through a woman.

The self-styled Jesus,  Saidi Pius comes from Maso Village in Traditional Authority Chowe in  Mangochi District.

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