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Gabriel Ezenwadonu, Enugu
Leadership crisis rocking the Assemblies of God Church may have taken a U-turn in favour of embattled General Superintendent of the church, Prof. Paul Emeka following the discovery of a court ruling which had earlier ordered that status quo should remain.
In the High Court ruling dated March 13, 2014 and made available to newsmen in Enugu at the weekend, the Court held that it will be failing in its duty if it failed to call Defendants to order.
“No one can be visited with dismissal merely for going to Court and parties should respect cases that are pending in court by trying not to do anything that will alter status quo. It is for the above reasons that the Court hereby makes the following interim orders…
“That the signatories to letter of dismissal, Rev John Ikoli, Rev. Chidi Okorafor and Rev Vincent Alaje appear physically in court on next adjourned date….
“The parties are to revert to status quo that was prevalent immediately before the institution of this present suit.
“The present order above has effect until the determination of the Motion on Notice.”
Dissatisfied by the order in Suit No E/82/2014 the Defendants, Okoroafor and co, approached the court of Appeal by notice and grounds of appeal dated 17/3/2014 in Appeal No. CA/E/202/2014.
The Appeal which came up on 25/4/2018 is currently adjourned to February 27, 2019.
Addressing the newsmen at the weekend Prof. Paul Emeka’s attorney, Ifeanyi Okonkwo recalled that sometime in March 2014, two gentlemen instituted an action against assistant superintendent of Assemblies of God and 21 other people.
“That matter is suit No. E/82/2014 and the relief they are praying the honourable court for were in terms of declaratory relief and order for Injunction more particularly an order of injunction restraining the defendants, their agents or sponsors from removing the plaintiff, Rev. Prof Paul Emeka from office of the General Superintendent of Assemblies of God through impeachment, suspension or any other unlawful means.
“Except through an election organized by the General Council of Assemblies of God Nigeria, you must know that Assemblies of God is an Incorporated Trustee and the highest organ of decision-making body there is the Board of Trustees not any other amorphous organization.
“In that action while it was still pending, on the 13th day of March 2014, the honourable court presided over by Justice A.O Onovo decreed an interim order restraining the parties and directing them that the signatories to the letter of dismissal of Rev. John Ikoli and the people who are the author, Rev. Chidi Okoroafor, Rev. Vincent Alaje to appear physically in the court and also directed that all parties should resort to status quo that was prevalent immediately before the institution of the present suit.
“The court drew up an order that was dated 13th day of March 2014 targeted against the present crop of people who are now parading themselves as the leaders of the church,” Okonkwo discloses.
The group led by Rev. Chidi Okoroafor were dissatisfied and upon being dissatisfied wanted to appeal against the decision.
According to Okonkwo, he was at the Court of Appeal on 25th of April 2018 when appeal by Rev. Chidi Okoroafor was called up and was shocked that Rev. Okoroafor appealed against earlier court ruling.
He lamented thus: ” You can see how they ignored a court order and gone ahead to do a catastrophic damage to the church: they have changed and removed illegally the leadership led by Rev. Paul Emeka not minding that there is a subsisting order that they should not do anything like that.
“Dr. Chidi Okoroafor and his group have taken over the University of Assemblies of God, taken over the banks, all the church and chased Paul Emeka out of town.
“We have now amended our processes at the Federal High Court to now bring this to public domain so that people will know the truth.
“The police have been working with Chidi Okoroafor thinking that they are legitimate. It’s now known that the authentic leader of the Assemblies of God Church Nigeria is Rev. Paul Emeka but was removed through “criminality and all kind of unconstitutionality” by Rev. Chidi okoroafor.
“The world knows nothing about it until on 25th of April 2018 while I was at the Court of Appeal. I have applied to obtain the certified true copies of the processes and the proceedings of the court on April 25th, 2018, so that we can now chase them out of the sacred office they are occupying by illegality.
“These people think they are smart; there is a subsisting order of court for the two parties to maintain status quo and this people went and removed Rev. Paul Emeka.
“They don’t have an injunction; they don’t have a stay of execution. The judiciary has been blind folded. This is criminal and impunity at highest order and they must be persecuted.
“If we want to clean up this country, even the criminals at the church must be rooted out. The critical issue is what is Rev. Chidi Okoroafor doing in the church as the superintendent when there is a court order that the status quo should remain, what are they doing in the court of Appeal?” Okonkwo reveals.
