At least 200 clergymen from the Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN) have embarked on a peaceful protest against alleged attempt by Enugu state government to demolish structures at the Church’s headquarters within the state’s capital city.
Clad in white cassocks, the clergymen clustered around the Church building located along Agbani road vowing to lay down their lives to ensure that the planned demolition does not happen.
“We heard that government is planning to pull down our structures,” said the Administrator in charge of MCN, Uwani, Rev. Gabriel Ogbansiegbe.
“For the four years I have been here, the state government has been against us – we are being marginalised.
“We can’t continue with a situation where government no longer respects the church. We feel we are not safe again.
“We are also aware that text messages have been flying about castigating our Bishop in Agbani, Bishop Onuagha, because of the way he introduced former governor Chimaroke Nnamani during the burial of Mrs. Alice Nnamani, mother of his former SSG, Onyemuche, in Agbani.
“This has sparked off attack on our church.
“We are not politicians, the fact that the former governor received loud ovation was not our making.
“This time around, we are going to resist them. We are ready to die because of our land.
“Enough is enough.”
Speaking further, the administrator said “We suspect political undertone because most of the people in the government presently are either Catholics or Anglicans unlike in the past when we had a Methodist as governor.
“This time around, they don’t want us anymore.”
The state government through the Commissioner for Education, Prof Chris Okolo, was said to have kicked against the fencing of the Church building as well as the alleged leasing of part of the land said to have been procured in 1943 to a bank by the Church.
But, speaking with newsmen during the peaceful protest, Ogbansiegbe denied the alleged leasing, accusing the government of engaging in political witch-hunt against the church in the state.
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