Tension, is again, building up at the Assemblies of God Church, Mount Street, Agbani Road in Enugu State.
The crisis rocking the Church worsened on Sunday as a faction in the church gained entrance into the church building, which has been under seal for the past two months.
DAILY POST gathered that for the past two months, the two groups, belonging to different leaderships, have been holding parallel church services simultaneously at the church compound.
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 gives judgement on the matter.
It could be re-called that members of the church, had two months ago engaged each other 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.
A source told our correspondent that 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, violent clash is looming in the church as the group opposed to the leadership of Rev. Prof. Paul Emeka has vowed not to allow “strangers” take over their place of worship.
Speaking to journalists, Rev. Amaechi Agbo, a senior Pastor with the church, said trouble started on the 19th of July “when one man in my church, who claims to be a lawyer, but is championing illegality and unlawful actions, imported Nathan Udeze to come and over-throw me, so we resisted them that day.”
He disclosed that “The matter went to the police and from there to court.
“The police advised us to lock the church and we did; we started worshiping 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 Monday last week 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, Rev. Agbo said “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 pm and 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 is watching them”.
On the claim that he has been transferred out of the church, he said “I am still in charge of this place; I came here on 12th April 2013 and till date I remain the senior Pastor in charge of this Church branch.”
He further alleged that “the suspended General Superintendent of the Church is behind all these; he is bringing thugs into the church.”
On the recent development, he said, “we are shocked over what happened today; if we had gone inside, there would have been bloodshed. I thank God that my members refused to confront them in the face of such provocation because something terrible would have happened here today. We are calling on law enforcement agencies to do the needful and avert trouble in this place”.
However, in a reaction, Rev. Paul Nathan Udeze, the Pastor leading the factional group said he remained the authentic priest in charge of the church.
While denying ever forcing his way into the church, he said, “I was posted here as a Senior Pastor on the 9th of July, 2015 and the former pastor, who has been transferred became wild; he refused to go on transfer. He began to mobilize sympathizers, taking advantage of the national crisis.
He added that “this one month time we have outside; we took into prayer, asking God to open this door; this morning we came and we saw that the door was open and we came and held church service, we have taken possession over what God has given to us.
“We shall protect our church, nobody gave them the order to lock our church; neither the police nor the court did; we shall secure our church, the women, the youths, the men, the children, all of them will secure this church.” .
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