Anglican communion faithful had earlier given a
seven-day ultimatum to Governor Willie Obiano to
rebuild their multi-million naira church building
allegedly demolished by suspected agents of the
state government late Monday night. They
claimed that the demolished house has passed its
roofing stage.
They also demanded an unreserved apology
from the governor to the Anglican communion for
not allowing them to speak during his visit to the
demolished church premises on Friday morning,
August 15 and at the same time making what
they termed a provocative statement that he
would relocate them from the church compound
to another place.
Meanwhile, Governor Obiano had set up a six-
man committee headed by the deputy governor to
investigate the contending issues and submit a
report on their findings within two weeks.
A statement signed yesterday by the Special
Adviser, Media to the Governor, Mr. Emeka
Ozumba said, “The attention of the Anambra
State Government has been drawn to the
demonstration, which took place at Onitsha
today, August 18, 2014 over ownership of a
primary school at Oyolu – Oze, Nkwelle –
Ezunaka, in Oyi Local Government Area.”
He acknowledged that government had
observed that the Nkwelle Ezunaka community
and the Anglican Communion are locked in a
dispute over the ownership of the said Oyolu –
Oze Primary School.
“Government observes that the committee is
presently only in the fourth day of its two-week
time frame to present a report and calls on all
parties to allow peace and due process to reign.
“As a democratic and law-abiding government,
the administration of Chief Willie Obiano upholds
the right of peaceful protests by citizens.
However, such protests must be within the ambit
of the law. Government wishes to assure all
citizens that it is committed to promotion of
justice, peace and fair play and calls on all
citizens to remain calm and law abiding.”
Commenting on the issue, the state
Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Usman Gwary,
charged Anglican faithful to be law abiding and
show good example to others, observing that it is
unbecoming of church leaders to call out
members to the street for protest.
Addressing newsmen in his office at Amawbia
yesterday evening, the CP said, “I expect that
church leaders and their members will calm down,
be law abiding and wait for the panel’s report.
“Law enforcement agents will not tolerate any
further march protest. If the church feels
aggrieved, they must follow the proper procedure
by informing the police.”
The aggrieved Anglicans numbering over 20,000
crippled commercial activities and vehicular
movements till late afternoon on Tuesday, even
as they displayed placards with the inscriptions,
“God can remove a sitting governor”, “Willie is
working against Christians”, “Major state jobs are
for Roman Catholic Missionaries, RSM, terrible”,
“Our God can kill”, Enough is enough”, among
others.
The Archdeacon in-charge of Oyi Archdeaconry,
Venerable Joseph Nweke, who addressed
demonstrators at the All Saints field, Onitsha,
urged the government to honour the ultimatum.
He promised that the protest would soon spread
to other parts of the state, if not across the
country where there are Anglican families
Nweke said, “We are demanding these two
things from Governor Obiano because as the chief
security officer of the state, he cannot deny not
having a pre-knowledge of the demolition
exercise, which allegedly was even supervised by
men on army and police uniforms … and yet no
one has been arrested for the offence.”