“Thugs” invade Assemblies of God headquarters in Enugu

The crisis in the Assemblies of God Church is far from being over as the situation degenerated into a fracas on Wednesday as one of the feuding parties invaded its headquarters in Enugu.

Vanguard quotes an eyewitness who preferred anonymity as saying that unidentified persons invaded the headquarters with weapons and burnt a vehicle in the premises.

According to him, some members of the church had been causing trouble since the present General Superintendent of the church, Rev. Dr Paul Emeka assumed office in 2011.

The newspaper quotes him:

“On getting this information, we quickly informed the security agencies, the state government, and some media houses and placed security men on 24-hour guard at the headquarters since Monday.

“The group held a meeting on March 16, 2014 against the advice of the general superintendent and suspended him for not attending.

“When they discovered that the suspension could not stand, they alleged that he misappropriated the church fund, an allegation which the EFCC had investigated without any proof.

“In view of the foregoing, many attempts were made by this group to discredit the church leadership which culminated in a court case that is yet to be vacated,’’ the witness said.

The eyewitness lamented that after violating the church’s constitution by hosting the meeting which was not supposed to be, they now decided to attack the headquarters.

“We are appealing to the government to come to our aid before things get out of hand,” the witness said.

NAN reports that  armed policemen and civil defence members have been kept to watch the area which has since been cordoned off.