Festering trouble in Anambra over Anglican Church demolition

It has been claims and counter claims over the rightful owner of the parcel of land housing the Oyolu Eze Primary School and Ebenezer Anglican Church in Nkwelle Ezunaka, Oyi local government area of Anambra State. Residents of the area woke up last month to discover that the church built inside the school had been demolished by unknown persons. While officials of the church pointed accusing fingers at the President General of Nkwelle Ezunaka Union, Dr. Chris Eluomunoh, of being the mastermind of the demolition, Eluemunoh, who is also the Anambra State President of Ohaneze Ndigbo and a delegate to the recently concluded National Conference, denied the allegation, saying it is unfortunate that people who claim to be men of God are telling lies just to claim what does not belong to them. The controversial school, according to Eluemunoh, was built in 1978 by the community and handed over to Anambra State government to manage, adding that in 1990, following the over- flowing of the population of the 33 suburb of Onitsha, the church applied to the headmaster of Oyolu Eze Primary School to be allowed the use one of the classrooms in the school for Sunday worship since they were yet to build a branch in the area. Sunday Vanguard received documents pertaining to the land and the correspondences between the two groups. First was the application dated March 7, 1990, signed by Venerable E.O. Okonkwo, and in which the church applied to the headmaster of the school to be allowed to use the school for worship. The application read: “We have a worshipping congregation at 3-3 which has been managing a small private building, but as the number of worshippers increased, the small house does not accommodate us. On receipt of the application, the headmaster, Mr. B.O. Okafo, in a reply, dated 21st March, 1990, said: “Approval is hereby given to your request. You are to use the eastern end of the school block for your worship temporarily. “You will be held responsible for any damage done to any of the school property by your congregation. Besides, you will pay a token rent of N20 only per month with effect from April 1, 1990.” However, on February 3, 2003, 13 years after the granting of the approval, the church reached an agreement with Oze community to cede part of school to it. The agreement read: “We, the Oze community, under the leadership of Oze Progressive Union unanimously agree to give to St. Barnabas Church Parish, land, which we donated to government, to put up an Anglican Church building. This will enable both the indigenes and non- indigenes residing within Oyou Eze area to have a benefitting place of worship”. Further to the application, counsel to the Anglican Church, Mr. Nnamdi Ibegbu, SAN, on June 13, 2005, wrote the State Primary Education Board, Awka informing the officer in charge that following a request by the Bishop on the Niger Diocese, Rt. Rev Ken Okeke, the state governor had approved the request and urged the church to prepare a survey plan for processing in order to be granted Certificate of Occupancy, C of O. But, in another letter dated August 22, 2005, Mrs. C.N. Umeokeke, for the Commissioner for Education, rejected the request. In the letter, reference number MOE/SCHD/2018/VOL.1/11A, and addressed to the officer in charge of Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, the ministry said: “I am directed to request you to inform the Diocese on the Niger that the ministry cannot grant her request for allocation of part of Oyolu Eze Primary School land. “This is because the portion of the school land afore said has been earmarked for the building of additional classroom blocks to ease off the accommodation problem facing the school. “The ministry sincerely regrets her inability to oblige the Diocese on the Niger.” Chairman of the Parent Teacher Association, PTA, of the school, Mr. James Okete, on May 18, 2005, in another letter addressed to the Education Secretary of Oyi local government, Nteje, threatened that the PTA would pull down the church signboard and asked the church to vacate the school’s library. It also gave the church a quit notice on the grounds that they may one day start claiming ownership of the school and requested the local government to send two security personnel to the school to protect it in view of the development. According to Eluomunoh, notwithstanding the rejection of the request, authorities of the Anglican Church went ahead to mount a giant billboard on the school with the name Ebenezer Anglican Church which, he said, gave the impression that the school belonged to the curch. According to him, the church had converted the school library to a store, thus making it impossible for the pupils to make use of the school library. He vowed that the ‘Anglican Church must leave the school premises either in peace or in war’ because on no account would the community allow the church to claim the school it built in 1978 and handed over to the state government to manage, regretting that members of the church have been dishing out lies, apparently to win people’s sympathy. He said: “There was no church in that school. The Anglican Church has land it acquired along the College of Education, Nsugbe, but instead of developing it, they went into government school to claim ownership. “It is disheartening that those who call themselves pastors should be telling lies because they want to claim what does not belong to them. They are claiming that government gave them the property to manage, but that is not true as government had earlier written them that it would not cede part of the school to anybody. “Besides, the school did not qualify as a mission school because all schools returned to the churches were built before the civil war and no church built any primary school on any government premises since the end of the civil war.” He urged government to implement the report of the panel that looked into the matter, adding that what the church was doing was mere grandstanding which could not lead them anywhere. When members of the church discovered, to their amazement, that the church building, which they had spent so much money to erect, was reduced to rubbles, they took to the streets. Apart from blaming the people of Nkwelle Ezunaka for the demolition; they accused the state government of encouraging the community to perpetrate what they described as an evil act. Among their requests were that those who pulled down the church must rebuild it and that Governor Willie Obiano should intervene in the matter and arrest the perpetrators of the act. Speaking on behalf of the Diocese on the Niger, Rev Ik Egbeonu said the state government’s silence on the matter signified a kind of conspiracy between government and those who perpetrated the act. He claimed that the school compound, housing the demolished church building, was among the schools handed over to the church by the former governor of the state, Mr. Peter Obi, adding that the statement credited to the President General of the community. Eluemuno, that the church took over the school by force was not true. He said: “We are calling on the state government to come and rebuild our church. We are also calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene in this matter. If this is not done, the 2015 presidential election will surely be affected because Anglicans form almost half of the voters in the country. This is a church project that has gulped over N30 million and the money was contributed by widows, orphans and the less privileged only for some people to pull it down from top to the foundation level”. Chancellor of the Diocese on the Niger, Mr. Nnamdi Ibegbu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, condemned the demolition and threatened that the Diocese would seek legal action against those who did it. According to him, the issue of the rightful owners of the premises that housed the demolished church building will be determined by a competent court of jurisdiction, even as he appealed to the Anglican faithful in the area to remain calm. However, Eluemuno denied that the community had a hand in the demolition of the church building, explaining that the matter was already being handled by law enforcement agents. Arguing that nobody gave the school to the Anglican Church in the first place and that the church did not get any certificate of occupancy on the land, he urged the Anglican Church to discontinue construction work going on at Oze village or be prepared for a showdown with the community. The President General summoned a general meeting of the community during which they alleged that despite an order of the state government that status quo be maintained pending the completion of investigation by the panel set up by the state government, the Anglican Church continued to build on the disputed school premises. “Even as the panel set up by government was sitting, the Church was building another structure, day and night, in the premises and this is what we cannot condone,” he said.. Eluemumo also recalled that it was Chief G.U. Okeke, Chairman of GUO Group of Companies, who is a member of the church that came to Nkwelle Ezunaka and pleaded that Anglican Church be allowed to worship there and promised that the church would never contest ownership and wondered what the church leaders should be preaching to the ordinary people. Shortly after the demolition, Governor Obiano, in company of his deputy, Dr. Nkem Okeke, who is an Anglican, visited the demolished church building. The governor later set up a panel of inquiry headed by the deputy governor to ascertain the remote and immediate causes of the dispute between the community and the church. But the Anglican Church vowed never to cooperate with members of the panel of inquiry, accusing the deputy governor of not doing much to prevail on his boss, Obiano, to treat the Anglican Church equally with the Catholic Church. For two consecutive days, members of the church continued with the demonstration and urged security operatives not to attempt to stop them as they were prepared to spill their blood on the disputed land. As the protest continued, the Anambra State government issued a statement, urging the Anglican Church to give peace a chance. Culled from Vanguard Newspaper