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| Assemblies of God church members fighting |
AVAILABLE
statistics
showed that the Assemblies of God Church has a population of over 2.6 million
members worshipping in over 14,300 churches spread in Nigeria with its
headquarters in Enugu, Enugu State. It has planted more than 50
missionaries in nine countries across the world with over 11,650 ministers.
However,
the once peaceful members of one-fold family had been torn apart following a
leadership tussle that is currently bedevilling the church. Crisis of
factionalisation of the church had been lingering as two senior Reverend
gentlemen, Professor Paul Emeka and Dr Chidi Okoroafor have been at
loggerheads, each laying claim to be the overall leader of the church,
qualified to bear the designation General Superintendent, GS.
The issue
which resulted in litigation is currently at the last bus stop – the
Supreme Court, awaiting the final arbitration. Whilst the much-expected
judgement is being awaited, members of the 27 Mount Street Parish in Enugu
engaged in free-for-all recently. The shameful act still centered on the
crisis over who takes control of the parish which is believed to be lucrative.
Control
ofthe parish
The drama
started when Reverend Nathaniel Udeze stormed the Mount Street parish
with letters of posting and other court documents empowering him to be
installed as the new pastor of the parish that morning.
But he
was stoutly resisted along with his team of loyalists by the current
Resident pastor of the parish, Reverend Amaechi Agbo who, along with his
loyalists, accused Udeze of being an “intruder”. The disagreement led to a free
for all when Udeze insisted on taking over since he had been officially posted
there by the leadership of the church under Rev Paul Emeka.
He went
on to inform the bewildered congregation that their resident minister, Agbo,
had been transferred to another Parish since May 2015. Earlier, supporters
of both warring pastors were found sharing different versions of the Sunday
school manual during the school which angered the supporters of the divide
until the two pastors began a shouting match that eventually led to the free
for all.
The
fracas attracted the attention of the police who raced to the place and the
church was locked up. That was not the first time members of the
congregation would engage in such a show of shame. Sometime last year,
precisely December 3, 2014, hell was also let loose at the national
headquarters of the church located in Enugu when the two warring factions
engaged in a bloody clash that left no fewer than five persons seriously
injured, while four cars parked at the premises were burnt beyond recognition
during the free for all that ensued.
Vanguard
Metro, VM,
gathered that the clash followed the invasion of the church headquarters
by the Reverend Chidi Okoroafor-led faction in a bid to forcefully take over
the national secretariat of the church which had been under the control of the
embattled General Superintendent, Reverend Paul Emeka and his loyalists.
Violence
broke out that fateful Wednesday morning, December 3, 2014, when members of the
Okoroafor faction stormed the national secretariat in several buses and
attempted to gain entry into the national secretariat but were prevented by
Reverend Emeka’s loyalists.
How we prevented bloodshed at the parish — PPRO
ENUGU
police command told VM surveillance has been mounted within the
vicinity of the parish until normalcy would be fully restored which is still
under lock and key as at the time of this report.
Speaking
to our reporter, the State Police Command’s image maker, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu,
said: “Please let me correct one impression. We (Police) did not lock up any
church. Ours is to ensure that there is no breakdown of law and order. What
happened was that we intervened and averted what could have resulted to
bloodshed.”
“If
not for our timely intervention that Sunday,” he went on, “it could have been a
different story. When efforts were made to bring the two factions to amicable
settlement, which was not forthcoming, we gave our advice, so they locked it up
and the keys are with them not with us (Police). But for now, we are monitoring
the place to ensure that no unpleasant thing occurred there”.
The CAC angle:
ANOTHER
angle has been added to the crisis as the Nigerian Corporate Affairs
Commission, CAC, had in a letter dated June 22, 2015 conveyed the withdrawal of
the name of Reverend Paul Emeka from the Certificate of Incorporation earlier
issued pending the final determination of the case currently pending before the
Supreme Court.
- See
more at:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/brethren-at-war-how-power-tussle-tears-assemblies-of-god-church-apart/#sthash.loYx2J7z.dpuf
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