Gabriel Enogholase
13 October 2008
Worshipers who turned out for worship at the Reverend Williams Payne Memorial Anglican Church in Benin, were prevented from performing their religious obligations in the church by youths protesting alleged ethnicity in the church.
Vanguard gathered that the church situated at 121A, Mission Road Benin, was shut down by its leadership and worshipers prevented from gaining access to the massive complex to prevent a breakdown of law and order on Monday due to disaffection caused by ethnic disenchantment between Igbo worshippers and other ethnic groups.
It was observed that the presence of plainclothes security men, the men of the Special Anti-robbery squad and the conventional policemen led by the Divisional Police Officer of the New Benin Police Station, Mr. Joseph Omoruwa, a Superintendent of Police, prevented the breakdown of law and order in the church.
Besides, the owner of a security outfit in Benin, Mr. Efe Stewart, who said he is the Chief Security Officer of the Anglican Diocese in Benin, was on the ground with his men and some of the youth to secure the church and indeed all other Anglican Church properties in the diocese.
The protesting youths who carried placards condemned what they described as undue ethnicity in the Church of Christ some of which read, "No to Christian tribalism, No to Igbo seizure of Anglican Church, Christians arise against ungodly behavior, Anglican Church is for all, not for Igbos alone."
It was gathered that the non Igbo worshippers of the church had resisted an attempt by the Igbo people to convert the church to a purely Igbo speaking when they alerted the Bishop in charge of the Benin Diocese, Bishop Peter Imasuen, on the issue.
But the Igbo worshippers defied the directive of the presiding Bishop of the Benin Diocese of the Anglican Communion and mounted a signed post with the inscription 'Williams Payne Anglican (Igbo Speaking) Anglican Church', which was said to have led to the tension that culminated in the closure of the church on Sunday.
It was further learnt that a members of the church had written a petition to the Commission of Police to allege that the Bishop threatened his life which led to the interrogation of Imasuen at the State Criminal Investigations Department.
The Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Peter Ogboi, who spoke to journalists on the issue yesterday, said that while the police invited the leadership of the church and the members, the mission was to ensure a settlement on the issue and not to commence investigation of allege crimes.
Before yesterday, the Registrar of the Benin Diocese, Rev. G.C Ogbodu, had written to the Commissioner in charge of the Edo State Police Command to intimate him of the decision of the church leadership to close down the church "due to unforeseen circumstances that border on the peace and security of parishioners."
The registrar had asked for police protection around the church with a view to preventing a breakdown of law and order.
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