ENUGU—Nerves were frayed at the Assemblies of God Church, Mount Street, Agbani-Road in Enugu State, yesterday, as a factional church group gained entry into the church, which has been under lock for the past two months.
•A front view of Fadeyi branch of Assembly of God Church after it was raided by robbers on Sunday.
It was gathered that for the past two months, the two groups have been holding parallel church services simultaneously at the church compound.
It took the timely intervention of Rev. Amaechi Agbo, the Senior Pastor in charge of one of the factions to stop angry church members from disrupting the Sunday Service inside the church.
Some members, however, vowed that they would not fold their hands next Sunday and watch the other group hold services inside the church again, pending when the court would deliver judgment on the matter.
It could be re-called that members of the church had two months ago, engaged one another in a free-for-all following the alleged transfer of a new pastor to the church.
To avert a further clash, the worshipers were said to have been told by the police to be conducting their services outside the compound and consequently, the church compound was divided into two, where the rival groups erected canopies for the church services pending when the issues would be resolved.
However, a violent clash loomed in the church as the group opposed to the leadership of Rev. Paul Emeka had vowed not to allow strangers take over their place of worship.
Speaking to journalists, Rev. Agbo, said trouble started on July 19,”when one man in my church, who claims to be a lawyer, but is championing illegality and unlawfulness imported Nathan Udeze to come and overthrow me, so we resisted them that day.
“The matter went to police and from there to court; the police advised us to lock the church and we did; we started worshipping outside; they went to court for us to open the church for them; they have not allowed the court to decide the case. They came on last Monday and broke the entrance to our school; then today again, they came and broke the church entrance, contrary to the agreement we reached with the police that we will wait for the court to decide.”
Expressing anger with the way the police handled the matter, Agbo went on: “I called the DPO to inform him that these people have broken into the church, he told me that we should see him by 2 p.m., that we should maintain peace. I don’t know what he means by that. These people broke into the school and today into the church and the police are watching them.”
On the claim that he had been transferred out of the church, he said: “I am still in charge of this place; I came here on April 12, 2013 and till date, I remain the senior pastor in charge of this church branch.”
