The crisis rocking Assemblies of God Church of Nigeria took a new turn, Tuesday, following the withdrawal of policemen attached to Prof. Paul Emeka, the then General Superintendent of the church.
The Supreme Court had on Friday, February 24, 2017 affirmed the sack of Emeka as the General Superintendent of the church.
The church has been in crisis of leadership, a matter that brought about the Supreme Court judgment, leading to a fresh suit in the High court which had been dismissed.
Consequently, Rev. Chidi Okoroafor, leader of the rival faction is accorded recognition as the General Superintendent of the church.
When our reporter visited the residence of Prof Emeka, Tuesday, the premises was deserted with few of the church members hanging afar.
Some of the members who spoke to reporter said they were afraid that police were either coming to make arrest of anybody in vicinity or that a rival were coming for attack.
Jane Egwu, Police Public Relations Officer in charge of zone 9 Umuahi, said the zonal command ordered for withdrawal of the police aides because of the Supreme Court judgment which she inferred was now in favour of Okoroafor.
Personal Assistant to Prof Emeka, Rev. Richard Akwah who spoke with newsmen on the development said the police had on Friday last week invaded the sacked General Superintendent’s residence with a staff of Evangel University in search of the University’s vehicle parked in the compound as the purported Chancellor of the institution.
“Since then, they (police) have been laying siege around here, threatening, and that has caused the General Superintendent to leave the compound, he has not been in the house for sometime now. Today we just noticed that the policemen attached here are no longer here and there is no explanation to it.
“While we are here, we have noticed some people going around in some kind of surveillance. It is all about our matter in the court which the police as a party has been served with a motion of junction that they should not involve themselves on the matter but they have kept coming here,” Akwah said.
