•Show of shame… Security men battle to break up a
fracas involving factional members of the Assembles of
God church, Enugu
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
presently 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.
SHARE ON

Op it is a fat lie