The
warring camps in the Assemblies of God Church, on Wednesday, engaged in a
violent clash at the Church’s headquarters in Enugu.
A
factional General Overseer of the Church, Rev. Chidi Okoroafor, alleged that
the attack was carried out by thugs.
It
was also claimed that they attacked Rev. Elisha Anyanwu, Rev. Gideon Adolphous,
some members of the church and that a Toyota sport utility vehicle (SUV)
belonging to one of the pastors was also set ablaze by the hoodlums.
According
to The SUN report, the thugs were allegedly hired by a sacked senior member of
the church, to stop the church members from organizing their prayer meeting at
the church secretariat and prevent members to enter the church premises. The
thugs allegedly made away with valuable items.
Okoroafor,
while briefing journalists at the Evangel camp at Okpoto in Ebonyi State
condemned the action and urged the security agents to investigate the matter
and brings to book any person involved in the attack.
His
words: “Our general secretary, who has served the church for 24 years, Rev.
John Okoni, will retire next tomorrow and preparatory to that retirement and
as we close up the year, the leadership of Assemblies of God Church decided to
organise an end of year prayer programme in our Enugu secretariat of the church
today. We also wrote and obtained police permission to hold the programme.
“But
while preparing to go for the programme, we were surprised to hear that some
thugs and strange men waylaid some of the church members who were coming for
the prayer programme, tagged: “Zero Hour Intervention.
“As
a matter of fact, a pastor who was coming for the programme, Rev. Elisha
Anyanwu, was stopped near the secretariat and they started beating him with
rods and then set his vehicle ablaze. Many others were also stopped from going
into the secretariats. This is very strange in Christianity. The same people
who did this carried placards to government house to tell the governor that we
should be prevented from coming to pray at the secretariat.
“This
is strange to Christianity because no sane person will attack people who are
going to pray for any reason whatsoever. Somebody is rebelling against the
leadership of the church. Every church has a constitution and if you cannot
abide by that constitution and rules you can leave that church and do whatever
you wish outside the church.”
One
of the victims Rev. Anyanwu while narrating his ordeal in the hands of the
thugs said it was God that saved him from the thugs.
“They
accosted me in the front of the church’s secretariat and brought me down from
my Toyota jeep and started beating me, using iron to hit me on my hands and
legs after which they set my car ablaze,” he stated in pains.
DAILY
POST recalls that the Church had in the recent times be divided into two camps
with one controlled by its General Overseer, Rev. Prof. Paul Emeka.
Daily Post
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