Members of the Assemblies of God Church, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja, have engaged in war of words over the weekend resulting from the leadership tussle that has overtly divided the church into two opposing factions.
The clash, according to Dailytimes, was between members loyal to Reverend Nicholas Anyanwu, the District Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church and others that recognize Reverend Chidi Okoroafor, the Assistant General Superintendent as their spiritual leader.
At the church premises in Wuse, members loyal to Rev. Okoroafor disrupted a planned press briefing called at the instance of the Rev. Anyanwu’s camp. They insisted that Rev. Anyanwu would not be allowed to brief the press within the church compound because he was not their District Superintendent.
As tension heightened owing to the pouring of invectives and threats by the warring factions, it took the wisdom of Rev. Anyanwu to move the media briefing to his compound, still within the church vicinity.
However, addressing journalists, lawyer to the Anyanwu faction, Mr. John Odiba, said the crisis rocking the party has been resolved amicably through instrumentality of the law.
Odiba, flanked by Anyanwu the applicant and other senior pastors of the church, displayed an endorsed copy of a judgement delivered by Justice Othman Musa of Abuja High Court which had settled the lingering intra-denominational crisis.
Amongst other judgements, Justice Musa further declared that by the provision of Section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, “the applicant is presumed innocent of the allegations against him by the respondents which constitute criminal offences and for which the applicant is yet to be arraigned and / or found guilty by a tribunal or court of competent jurisdiction set up by law.”
By Ololade Olatimehin
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