The
residents of Kubwa, a community on the outskirts of Abuja, got the
shock of their lives when an unusual incident involving a businessman
occurred about two weeks ago.
The businessman, Edward Asuelimen, woke up in the morning of July 16 with severe pain in his stomach.
woke up a few minutes after 5 am. In less than two hours, I had visited
the toilet four times. Then I felt excruciating pain in my stomach. It
got to a point where I could hardly prepare my children for school,”
Asuelimen recounts.
Even his wife was
very worried. But he managed to pull himself together and left their
home with the children. Halfway to the children’s school, the pain
became unbearable and he decided to get some drugs from a store on the
way
Few minutes later, Asuelimen barely managed to walk out of the store by gripping the walls for support.
“I
prayed hard to get back home. Anybody who saw me at that point wouldn’t
have believed that there was something wrong with me,” he says.
He
kept praying and fighting the pain raging in his stomach until he got
home. He was so weak that he could not step out of his car.
Asuelimen’s
wife was alarmed at his condition. She suggested that he should seek
medical attention in a hospital after he gasped and said, “Help me
quickly, I can’t breathe.”
The
businessman had no choice other than to listen to his wife. Eventually,
he was admitted at Unity Clinic and Maternity Home, which was nearby.
At intervals, his panic-stricken wife called out his name just to be sure that he was still alive. “I
had never experienced that kind of pain before. I was merely hanging on
with all my strength and faith in God. At the hospital, the medical
director and his staff were already having their morning devotion.
“When
my wife called the doctor and he helped me to come out of my car, the
only thing I could say was, ‘my tommy, my tummy’ I was given an
injection and somebody stayed with me, all the while praying as the
rest continued the morning devotion.
“The Holy Spirit pushed me to speaking in tongues at that point. Not long afterwards, I felt a strong urge to vomit and I did.”
Asuelimen
vomited two live lizards in the hospital. The incident however caused
consternation among members of the staff of the hospital and other
patients present.
“When
my wife tried to get something to clean my mouth and pack it, I saw a
lizard crawling out from the vomit on the ground. The nurse that
attended to me saw another one and wanted to kill it,” he says.
When
he saw the lizards, the first thought that struck him was that he had
been poisoned. But the pain ceased after he vomited the reptiles. The
doctor told him that he had just received divine healing. “I
got well almost instantly. Even I joined the hospital staff in burning
the lizards. I went home had my bath and continued the day’s business as
if nothing had happened to me,” he says.
The
news of the event spread like wildfire. Soon Asuelimen started
receiving phone calls from his friends, relatives, neighbours and
associates. They congratulated him for surviving a close shave with
death.
Eventually,
the incident became the talk among the residents of Kubwa. Everybody
seemed to be mystified and for some time, they discussed the incident in
hushed tones.
The
lizards are sstill the subject of debate in the community and the
residents are torn between accepting the mystery and waving it aside,
since they are convinced that it cannot be proved scientifically. But
Asuelimen says, “I am not a medical doctor, and I know that it cannot
be proved scientifically. I know that faith is older and stronger than
science. The faith we are talking about is God himself. God is the
creator of the universe, so invention and science itself is dependent on
God. “Some
things are real and beyond proof. We don’t have to subject God’s
miracle and existence to scrutiny. It does not make sense because I know
there are many things that God can do, which science cannot prove. I am
talking about divine healing and miracles in particular. The fact that
science cannot prove it does not mean they are not real.”
The
Medical Director of Unity Clinic and Maternity, Dr. Stephen Nwaedozie,
confirmed the incident. He says, “When I got to the car, I saw Edward
writhing in pain. I brought him out of the vehicle and attended to him.
We started praying for him. Not long afterwards, my nurses told me that
he had vomited lizards. “I
personally burnt the lizards and poured anointing oil on them and
buried the carcasses. As soon as we did that, the man recovered from the
stomach pain. He is a child of God and with faith he told them to bring
him to my hospital and when he came here, God delivered him. So we
praise God.”
Nwaedozie
admitted that there was no way science could explain the appearance of
the lizards in Asuelimen’s vomit. “If I was not there and it didn’t
happen right before me, I won’t believe. So that is why we have to tell
the world the truth,” he says.
More Pictures when you continue