Assemblies of God church’s leadership crisis

The leadership crisis rocking the Assemblies of God was on Friday brought to end by the Supreme Court in favour of the Acting General Superintendent of the Church, Rev Chidi Okoroafor

In a unanimous judgment, the apex court held that the appeal filed by the suspended General Superintendent of the Church, Paul Emeka was not meritorious and was accordingly dismissed.

Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun who delivered the lead judgment affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal in Enugu which upheld the suspension and dismissal of the appellant by the church.

Besides, the apex court further held that there was no proper proof of service on the respondents by the appellant and the service was accordingly set aside.

On the alleged violation of fair hearing raised by the appellant against the meeting of the church where he was suspended, the court held that there was remedy under chapter 4 of the 1999 constitution.

Justice Kekere-Ekun stated that the provisions of section 36 (1) of the 1999 constitution where the appellant hinged his appeal does not cover proceedings emanating from domestic meetings, standing Adhoc tribunals except proceedings of court of law.

In addition, the court held that the right to be a member of a church is not a right recognised under chapter four of the 1999 constitution.

Justice Kekere-Ekun accordingly dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.

The church has been embroiled in leadership crisis for more than two years, culminating into the emergence of two factional leaders and multiple court actions.

The crisis started immediately after the General Council of the church had on March 6, 2014, suspended Rev. Paul Emeka for violating several sections of the Constitution and Bye Laws of the Church, especially Article 12, which deals with taking or using any other person to drag the church to court for any reason.

The decision to suspend Emeka was taken at the meeting of the General Committee held on Thursday March 6, 2014, in the Conference Hall of the National Secretariat, Enugu, after the committee had deliberated on the implications of his action on the image of the church worldwide.

In a letter dated March 6, 2014 titled “Re: Rev. Prof. Paul Emeka, former General Superintendent, Assemblies of God, Nigeria” and signed by Rev. Dr. John Ikoni, Rev. Dr. Chidi Okoroafor and Rev. Dr. Vincent Alaje; the General Secretary, Acting General Superintendent and General Treasurer respectively, they maintained that their decision to suspend the former General Superintendent  was hinged on the constitution which he violated  by dragging the church to court without first bringing his grievances to both the General Committee and the Executive committee members.

The church also accused the former General Superintendent of being autocratic, and involved in financial mismanagement; abuse of power and “above all took the church to court which tantamount to tarnishing the image of the church and bringing it to public ridicule.” While calling on members of the church to stop relating with Rev. Paul Emeka as General Superintendent of the church, the committee maintained that he had “ceased to function in any of the duties assigned to the Office of the General Superintendent in the Constitution and Bye- Laws of the General Council of Assemblies of God, Nigeria, with effect from Thursday March 6, 2014.”

The committee warned: “ Should any administrative unit(s) or minister(s) or member(s) of Assemblies of God, Nigeria, relate with the former General Superintendent in any way that is contrary to the established practice for all such cases in Assemblies of God, Nigeria, such administrative unit(s) or minister(s) or member(s) would be doing so to their own detriment, and would attract commensurate disciplinary measure by the Executive Committee or the General Officers of Assemblies of God, Nigeria.”

But ever since the authorities took the decision to suspend the former General Superintendent, the church had been entangled in a cobwebs of litigation which finally ended at the Supreme Court yesterday.