The Story of Daniel Ekechukwu
Rigor Mortis Corpse Leaves His Coffin
Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? Acts 26:8 Holy Bible NIV
Crossing Death's Path
In the morning of November 30th 2001,
Daniel Ekechukwu, the pastor of the Power Chapel Evangelical Church in Onitsha,
with his friend Kingsley Iruka took a Christmas present of a goat to his father
in a village near the town of Owerri. Daniel drove his 20-year-old Mercedes
230. On the way back home, travelling down a steep road, the Mercedes brakes
failed. Daniel could do nothing. Gathering speed the vehicle hurtled downhill
unstoppable. Its career, and Daniel's, ended as it smashed into a stone pillar.
Without a seat belt Daniel was
catapulted violently forward. His head hit the windscreen and the steering
wheel and knob punched into his body. Daniel's friend Kingsley Iruka, shocked
though not badly hurt, turned to Daniel, hoping all was well. But the sight
appalled him. Blood was pouring from Daniel's nose from a head injury, and then
he began vomiting blood from heavy internal hemorrhage.
Rescue presently came. Marvelously
Daniel held up until he was placed in the local hospital's intensive care, or
the Nigerian best equivalent of it. His wife, Nneka was sent for. She found
Daniel still alive but only just. He hung on to life to
ask her to have him taken to his family doctor's hospital in Owerri -- a very
serious mistake. It meant anything but a smooth ride of one and a half hours.
Within minutes of being lifted into the ambulance Daniel felt
himself dying. He tried to whisper his
last words and instructions to Nneka. Especially he begged her to see the work
of their church continued. He also tried to inform her about one or two church
situations she ought to be aware of, but his speech slurred, became incoherent
and stopped as he drifted into unconsciousness.
The ambulance driver pushed on however,
at full speed, warning sirens blaring. Reaching the Owerri Regional Hospital
they ran in shouting "Emergency! Emergency." Daniel's doctor,
however, was not on duty. Instead a member of the medical staff took charge and
checked Daniel's now limp form. He turned to them with a sad face. He could
only certify that Daniel was already dead.
His wife Nneka naturally was shocked. But a Bible verse
had been ringing in her mind from
Hebrews 11
Women received their dead
raised to life again.
An irrational conviction seized her.
This meant her. She would see Daniel alive and well
again. In what follows Nneka was the key figure.
Evidence of things hoped for
The text in Nneka's head made it
impossible for her to accept the plain evidence that Daniel had gone or allow
him to be buried. Her agitation dictated that something must be done. They
hurried to see Daniel's uncle, Okoronkwo Emmanuel living near the hospital and
asked if he knew where their own family doctor was. He did not know, but led
them to see his own doctor, Dr. Jossy Anuebunisa at the St. Eunice Clinic.
Daniel was taken there and seeing Nneka's determination again the doctor
checked. He could only confirm death had taken place. The time
registered was 11:30 p.m. of the day of the car accident.
The doctor then wrote out his report on
the decease of his patient and asked if they wished to have Daniel laid in the
clinic's mortuary. They declined. Instead they again moved the body to Daniel's
father in the village near Owerri and from there to the Ikeduru General
Hospital Mortuary, not far away. The resident mortician, Mr. Barlington R.
Manu, also carried out the normal checks and by then it was after midnight, one
o'clock Saturday morning.
The mortuary having no cold storage
facilities, the mortician administered the usual chemical injection and
prepared the body for embalming on the following morning. With a staff member
he laid the body out on a mortuary slab between two other dead
people. Everyone then retired for the night.
Faith: The Turning Point
Meanwhile Daniel's wife convinced her husband would live again, wanted his body taken to the church in Onitsha where Reinhard Bonnke was to speak at a
dedication ceremony of the Grace of God Ministries. Daniel's father, however,
was a Mormon and declared he would decide. He said he would go and "hit
him with the Bible seven times", and if Daniel did not rise, then Nneka
must accept the fact that he was not going to rise from the dead,
and that must close the matter. He did go and struck the corpse as he said
seven times, with no result whatever.
Nneka, being a Christian, considered a
Mormon would not understand. His performance meant nothing except to put her
off. She would not give up. She pestered her father-in-law. Daniel must be
taken to the Bonnke meeting. Realizing that if he refused this favor, she would
remember all her life he had denied her request on behalf of her husband.
Eventually he relented.
On the next day, Sunday, December 2,
they went to take the body from the mortuary. But the mortician was worried
about their intentions. To hide the fact that a body was being taken away as it
was, with a one and half hours drive to Onitsha, as a pretext he dressed the
body as for the funeral, placed it in a coffin and shut the lid. They took
Daniel in his coffin and set off.
Arriving at the Onitsha church compound,
the State security officer and the ushers saw them entering with a coffin and
ordered them to turn round and leave immediately. Nneka however was determined.
She pleaded and persisted not only for the coffin to be allowed in the church
compound but brought into the church itself.
Seeing her agitation, the State
security office checked that the coffin did contain a body and was not a
terrorist trick to plant a bomb. Finding only a pallid corpse he allowed them
to proceed. However the idea of bringing a coffin or a dead
body into a crowded church brought consternation and upheaval. Finally the
Head
Bishop's son Pastor Paul Jr. sought his father's permission to get the body
into the building, but it would have to be only into the children's department.
The children were ushered into the lower hall, and the corpse brought in the
upper room and laid out on a table. The Bishop's son, Paul, and another pastor
on the church staff, Bathcomery Nkwando, attended to this and found rigor
mortis had stiffened the limbs.
Life Returns!
Two other staff pastors, Lawrence Onyeka
and Luke Ibekwe joined them to guard the body. Meanwhile Reinhard
Bonnke knew nothing of this and was preaching and praying upstairs in
the main auditorium. After a while the pastors noticed a slight twitching of
the stomach of the corpse.
Then the corpse drew a breath, and
presently irregular breathing took place in "short bursts" as they
reported. Encouraged, the pastors threw themselves into powerful petitionary
prayer, stripped the body of the mortuary gloves, socks and shirt and began
massage from head to foot, Daniel being as said "as stiff as an iron
rod". They asked for fans to be brought in to give Daniel more air to
breathe. As this news broke out in the sanctuary above it created hysterical
pandemonium. Then, said Pastor Lawrence, at 5:15 on the Sunday afternoon,
nearly two days after death had taken place, Daniel opened his eyes,
sat up and leaned on Pastor Lawrence.
People began crowding into the hall to
see this resurrection man. Pastor Lawrence was worried
Daniel would not have enough oxygen, so he lifted and carried him into the
church sanctuary. Daniel spoke for the first time "Water. Water."
They gave him sips and then warm tea. To give him a clear space they seated him
on a chair on the platform, where hundreds of people saw him slowly recovering.
He had not yet collected his thoughts and for a while could not recognize
anyone, not even his own son who came up to see his dad. However, he
progressed, and within only hours, during the evening, he had full
consciousness and coherence.
He became a wonder, and crowds besieged
his home, so he was taken away to a secret location for two days of physical
re-strengthening. The once-dead man
not only rose from his coffin, but the serious injuries, which had brought
about his death, were also healed without the slightest trace.
Reinhard Bonnke meanwhile
had left the immediate scene to board a planned plane flight. Any doubts? Here
are some hard facts that won't go away. For two days Daniel did not breathe,
his heart had stopped beating. It was in a hot climate, not suspended animation
in an ice chamber. He had been injected with a harsh chemical to keep back
mortification. As a corpse he was carted around for hours, pulled about, and
lay in an airless narrow coffin for hours. He should have had severe brain
damage, but he is alive now without any ill effects.
 |
| Reinhard Bonnke with Daniel |
This is no unsupported claim of bringing
someone to life privately, as in a house. Here was a public event, an open demonstration
of revival from death. If anyone has to be named, it is Nneka. Her incurable
faith alone prevented Daniel's burial simply to bring him where she was
convinced God could bring him back to life. She regarded Reinhard Bonnke as a man of God and that in the atmosphere of faith where he
ministered this miracle was possible.
The faith of Nneka dictated the whole
event and her faith was honored. By whom? Who honoured her faith? If not God,
who else?
