Police officials have locked up the Mount Street Parish of Assemblies of God Church in Enugu State on Sunday, July 19, 2015 after two pastors and their members engaged in a fist battle over control of the church.
The police made efforts to restore normalcy among the warring parish members but all efforts proved abortive which propelled them to take the measure of locking it up and demanding that the involved person appeared at the station.
It was gathered that trouble started when one of the pastors, Rev. Nathaniel Udeze, who was supposed to be installed as the new pastor of the parish, arrived with his posting letter and other court documents, but was resisted with his loyalists as soon as they arrived.
The current resident pastor, Reverend Amaechi Agbo, swore to never give Rev. Udeze a chance to take over the church.
Agbo’s reaction was said to have infuriated the latter who maintained that the church authority led by Rev. Paul Emeka had officially posted him to the parish adding that his rival had been transferred to another parish since May 2015.
According to Vanguard, Agbo disagreed, insisting that he was still in-charge of the parish as he was yet to be formally written by Rev. Okoroafor’s leadership of the church, which he recognised.
It was learnt that supporters of both pastors started sharing different versions of Sunday School manual as early as 7am on the fateful day in readiness for the service.
The pastors later arrived and started shoving each other which further degenerated to a fist battle by the two warring groups.
For over three years, there has been a factionalisation crisis in the Assemblies of God Church as two persons, Professor Paul Emeka and Dr. Chidi Okoroafor, are each laying claims as to who would be the General Superintendent of the church.
The case was taken before the Supreme Court and is still pending.
