War In The House Of God As Church Leaders Fight Each Other

The General Superintendent of Assemblies of God Church, Rev.
Paul Emeka, who was suspended over allegations of misconduct, financial
misappropriation and other matters has said, even though he has been suspended,
he is innocent of them all. He also stated that, there are some people in the church
who feel threatened by his presence and are the ones behind it. He also made it
clear that some leaders are also totally against him for raising his voice
against their wish. Anyway, Rev. Emeka has taken them to court, and the court
insists he remains the General Superintendent, but that has still not made the
church call him back. Find an exclusive interview Rev. Emeka granted Vanguard
Newspaper after the cut.

What is your position 
on the crisis  rocking  Assemblies of God Church?

Everything has immediate and remote causes; so in a
situation like  this, you don’t really
know where to start. I must let you know that there was a time we got license
to operate the Evangel University. The Board of Trustees employed people and,
of course, members of the church, but they began to mis-run the university,
making it too expensive for us to continue.

They employed without looking back, they employed without
consulting, because, by the law of the university, statutorily as the General
Superintendent, I am the Chancellor and 
the Visitor. I am the proprietor, so I was concerned that they were
spending too much. We had 73 students but they employed 135 workers. In their
first salary schedule, they brought six million naira. We protested but
helplessly paid.

In the second one, it went up to nine million naira and it
never came down until it came to thirteen million naira. Each time we
called  them to give account, they said
no, that they were not accountable to the BOT or even the Executive
Council  of the church, that they were
accountable to the Governing Council. So there was a problem, nobody was
accountable to us.

So the BOT,  in the
process of recognising and adopting a pragmatic approach in the running of the
university, suspended them and  set up a
panel to look into how the university was being run. But these people ran to
what we call  Ambassadors of the
Kingdom  made up of those  my predecessor felt had served the church and
gave them the recognition  as
‘Ambassadors of the Kingdom’.

It was not meant to be an association; it has no place in
our constitution or organogram of the church. But somehow the people  (Ambassadors) came together and began to see
themselves as a pressure group or  the
political arm of the church. The Vice Chancellor of the university  happens to be a member of the body and he ran
to them and called on them to help him out.

They came to the Executive Council  (EC) to see us and we asked them to
wait,  that we will invite the BOT and
explain everything to them. They laid their complaints that the young
university will soon be closed, that they were not happy that the people were
suspended and didn’t care to know the reason for our action.

Few weeks later, they came up with a write up that they
addressed to the Presbyters (these are pastors in Assemblies of God and are up
to 2,000 in number). They didn’t address it to the EC members which is the
highest decision making body of the church. This was where  trouble started. All of us had different
approach towards  resolving it.

Germany house

They came up with so many allegations that didn’t have to do
with the university but other things. They alleged many things against me. For
instance, they talked about a house we bought in Germany. The allegation
associated with the Germany house purchase are very shapeless, the story
keeps  increasing by the day.  They also alleged that we created the
Assemblies of God Ministers Benefit Fund.

The pastors every month make contributions to that  fund and, each time a  pastor retires, he is given what he
contributed with interest and the balance remains with the church. They also
alleged that I made a pledge to the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria without
consulting the EC, that my brother-in-law was the one hiring equipment and
being given two million naira each time we were to do a programme and helping
himself from that.

The truth is not far-fetched because the purchase of the
project in Germany was started by my predecessor, the advance which was twenty
million naira was paid by the General Treasurer who was serving under him and
later on there was this election that brought me in when he retired and we
continued from there.

The church obtained a loan from GTB and it was the
responsibility of the General Treasurer and the accountants there to pay and
they paid and kept remitting the money 
to  the company until the
transaction was completed.  I didn’t have
anything to do with the money, all I did was to go and see if it was true, the
General Secretary equally went and the Assistant General Superintendent also
went, all these things are in our minutes.

But when they were making their allegations, they didn’t do
them as if all these things are in the minutes; they talked as if I woke up one
day and carried the money to buy a property in Germany.

Retired pastors fund

The allegation on the Pastors Benefit Fund started about 16
years ago. Each  pastor contributes
automatically to the fund and goes home with what he contributed on retirement
with interest. But I discovered that each month, all the ministers of
Assemblies of God contribute an average of 
thirty million  naira but the
ministers who retire in a given month don’t take up to six million naira and
there was a Board set up to use that money and invest.

It was from there that we built our bank called AG Homes;
that continued for many years until I became the General Superintendent. I
proposed before the EC that here you have one man  managing the millions of naira that the
ministers are contributing and here you have the bank. He is the Managing
Director of the bank as well as the Chairman of the Board, that it would be
nice that we separate it so that he will continue to be the Chairman of the
Board and another person the Managing Director. The Committee bought the idea.

I equally said that the ministers  retiring, and given what they contributed
with interest and the money remains there, they are not coming back at any time
to benefit from the investment that their money was put into.  I said the only way these people could have a
share is that since this body doesn’t give them pension and since what the
General Council pays to them as pension monthly is too small,  we should do something to enhance their
living standard from the money.

By the time the former Board was handing over, they had
already about N2.5billion and I said  it
was possible  to take part of this money
to increase the pastors  pension so that
they don’t suffer too much. They accepted and adopted it unanimously. I
proposed N350 million but they handed over about N1.5million and said they had
invested the rest.

We said they should give us N200million so that we start
helping the retired pastors and they sent it from AG Homes to the General
Council account. It did not go to my personal account. The General Treasurer
received it, receipted for it; but when they were writing, they started
alleging and talking as if I had direct access to the money and using it on my
own. It was credited to the General Council account.

Donation to PFN

On the allegation about making donation to the PFN, we went
to the NAC (National Advisory Committee) meeting of the PFN, all the church
leaders were there. So there was this spontaneous fund raised, people were
pledging fifty to one hundred million, but, on behalf the Assemblies of God, I
pledged ten million naira and that was not to say I paid it immediately.

When I came back, I brought the matter before the Executive
Council meeting and they approved that the General Treasurer should pay. Nobody
gave me cash, it was a cheque credited in the account of the PFN. But here they
said the Executive Committee did not know about it even when they paid
willingly.

Another allegation about my in-law hiring equipment; the
truth of the matter is that whenever we are doing a big programme, there is a
central committee that will meet with sub-committees.

At a time, the committee told us they now had a company
owned by one Okezie and that they supply power and sound to the government at
Okpara Square each time they had a programme and that if we would hire them,
they would do us good.

We told them to bring them and they brought them. The
central planning committee would always haggle the price with this man
depending on the nature and duration of the programme.

We would agree and immediately we agree on price the manager
of the company would go to the accounts office where he would be given a cheque
and that ends it.

Nobody gives me the money and that is the structure of the
church. The General Superintendent does not have anything to do with money, we
take the decisions and it is the responsibility of the General Treasurer with
the people working under him to take action. Now when the Ambassadors brought
their complaints and started alleging all these things, they were not in a
position to know since they are not in the organogram of the church.

It was somebody that made them to know and they came up with
these allegations that never existed. They are alleging over N450 million.

The Executive Committee members working with me who
know  when all these decisions were
taken, I thought they would come to my aid when these allegations were raised
but some of them were of the opinion that these Ambassadors will be brought and
they would be made to repeat the allegations and I would answer.

That continued until a certain time when they appealed to
the General Committee. The General Committee, judicially speaking, is higher
than the Executive Committee, the Executive Committee makes decisions.  The General Committee is called twice a year
but if a General Committee is needed, the General Superintendent can on his own
call it but if it is called without the General Superintendent, the
constitution says they will obtain 33 percent signatories of the members of the
General Committee and they will lay it on the table of the General Superintendent and he will invite the people  for the General Committee and he equally will
determine the terms to be discussed with members of the Executive
Committee. 

Now they called the General
Committee without respect to this process. They were not able to obtain it
because the constitution says that the General Committee will serve as a court
of final appeal and I told them that if the General Committee will serve as the
final appeal, it means that the Executive Committee will serve as court of
first appeal.

First of all, we have to look at it so that if the General
Committee sits, we will now tell them the extent to which we have looked at it.
But I never knew there was a political plan to be hatched that day.  They never allowed me to execute it as
constitution demands and that was on the 6th of March. I told them I wouldn’t
attend because it fell short of constitutional demands.

There were text messages here and there but, before that
day, I had called the police to say I was not comfortable with the meeting and
asked them to stop it but the police said no, 
they didn’t have the right to stop a private meeting of the church, that
all I needed to do was to obtain a court order to stop it.

Court  order

I invited my lawyer to prepare a court order to the effect.
It was not to be a court order against the Assemblies of God but against
certain individuals I perceived were responsible for the General Committee. But
along the line, I called the lawyer and 
said I would want to terminate the suit, that I would be misunderstood
and I asked him to leave it.

But  on that very day
of the meeting, somebody from among the Ambassadors and the eleven Executive
Committee members standing against me was sent to go to court and look for the
abandoned suit and he brought it to the General Committee.

In that meeting, the Legal Adviser of the church  was the one who read it that the General
Superintendent had taken the church to court and should be suspended. But some
others said he didn’t take the church to court, because the Trustees are not
there, the General Council is not there and Assemblies of God is not there but
those there are individuals, but they wouldn’t 
listen.

He also failed to let them know that the suit was abandoned
and the court wrote to that effect, that the suit was not in existence. Nobody
was served any summons.

What is happening is that there is a group of men in the
church whose interests  became threatened
and they felt I was the one anchoring it.

But when I was making the reorganization, I didn’t
deliberately do it to step on any toe, I was doing what  I  felt
would help the church to go forward because to me, I didn’t feel comfortable
that every day you stand before the church to go and raise fund,  instead of people hearing sermons, you are
telling them about money whereas we have ventures here and there that could
yield money for  the church.

Without worrying people, our offering and tithe should be
enough. That was my aim. We had money. If you invest N250 million very well, it
will increase the revenue of the church. As at last year, the pastors fund
generated N2.5 billion from the time that scheme started, all that had been
paid to the pastors was only N123million in 16 years, up to N300 million and
more was spent on office.

The purpose of that scheme was not to run office or other
things but to help our pastors in retirement but many of them are suffering and
we felt free to our conscience to allow them in that state and pay lip service
to our holiness. They said Rev Chidi Okoroafor becomes the acting General
Superintendent. This is what has been rocking Assemblies of God.

But we learnt some members of the church later went to
court. Is this true?

I didn’t go to court. Dr Nathan Udeze and another one who is
a lecturer in one of our Bible schools, Dr Ekenedilichukwu Offodile, they
didn’t like what  happened, they went to
court and sued and the nature of the suit was in representative capacity, not
only for the two of them but for any other person who did  not like what happened.

We went to the court for hearing  three times and the court said, return to
status quo and, by this I am still the General Superintendent and Chidi remains
the assistant and there is nothing like acting. 
Yet our people have decided to ignore the court order.

This is what is happening and on daily basis they keep
writing against me. In the Assemblies of God, the maximum punishment is
suspension; after suspending me, you say you are setting up a panel, so when
the committee must have concluded its work, what other punishment will you give
me? If you have allegations of fraud, the police is there to look into it.

How do you feel about what is happening and at what point
can you leave it for God. What will be your advice to members?

I have already left it for God. What I am doing is simply
what God wants me to do. I have tried my best; a man does not praise himself. I
have not laid bad example – morally speaking or with money. You cannot say that
you found Paul Emeka messing up with women or in fact that you suspect him at
all.

The salary I take is enough for me; forget about what they
are writing about. Think about it, in a corporate organization, you cannot
steal money alone, you cannot go and take half a million alone, there is a
Treasurer and you cannot in the name of General Superintendent pounce on
people’s money and you begin to cart it away. The national leadership of PFN
has come and they keep turning them here and there. They  should 
tell the world what is happening.

Somebody is retired and wants to be the father of the
Assemblies of God and that is why I believe it cannot last for long because the
people do not like it and God himself does not like what is happening. But we
will not chicken out for them to continue even if I am out.