Are Churches under attack in Nigeria?

Off recent, Churches have been on the receiving end of the state governments on many fronts ranging from environmental pollution to illegal construction of their church buildings on official lands belonging to the governments without approvals, Emeka Ibemere, reports.

It was like a drama on Sunday Oct. 6, 2013, at the popular Ijesha Bus Stop on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos State.

The worshipers

had already thronged to the church premises for that day’s service and suddenly, men of the Nigerian police, armed to the teeth, the Kick against Indiscipline officials and other officials from the Lagos State Environmental Agency stormed the church.

The ferocious prayers of worshipers, who had gathered at the church before the demolition sealing off of the church could not stop the government officials from sealing off the edifice. Before you could say, A-M-E-N, there was padlock on both entrance of the church doors and the mouth of the worshipers, kept agap.

 Pastor Lazarus Muoka, the founder and General over sear of the popular church in Nigeria, Lord's Chosen and Charismatic Revival Church, has acted in the firmament of the ‘Holy Spirit’ until the Lagos State Government sealed off the Headquarters of the church in a move that surprised his members.

What were their sins? The State claimed that the church has defaced the face of Lagos State. They were also alleged to have constituted environmental nuisance to its environment in the last decade.
The church, was shut down by the officials of the Ministry of the Environment and prevented thousands of worshipers from having their Sunday service that morning.

 Mr. Tunji Bello, the Commissioner for the Environment explained why the Church was shut down in this way.

“The Church does not have proper sanitary system and they discharge their wastes into the canal. Most of their members trade on the expressway and we don’t want that” he said.

According to the commissioner, the church had a habit of burning its refuse inside the church, an action that is against the environmental and sanitation law of the state.

 He said the church will be re-opened only after it builds new toilets, build a sewage septic tank for the treatment of waste water, remove all illegal attachments built on drainage channels, keep the environment clean and ensure that none of its members trade on the expressway.

On daily basis, massive trading is observed under the Ijesha flyover along the Apapa Oshodi Expressway by the members of the Lord Chosen and other traders who catch on the business that goes on near the church to cause traffic and other large scale environmental degradation arising from the activities of the traders.
The Church was also accused of building a substantial part of its auditorium on the Odo Asimawu drainage channel thus impeding the flow of storm water, as well as inhibiting effective performance of the channel.
The Church was also accused of building all its toilets on the canal and deliberately discharging the raw human waste into the canal causing dangerous odour around the area.
The commissioner further said its decision to shut down the Church’s headquarters was to prevent an outbreak of epidemic in the area and protect the lives of the worshipers.
Bello commended the cooperation and non resistance of the Church authorities even as he assured that government would continue to promote a cleaner, habitable and conducive environment to residents irrespective of their ethnic or religious affiliation in other to attain a cleaner and sustainable environment in the state.

In Enugu State, the same environmental reasons were giving for the demolition of a 17 years old church in the state. Enugu State government allegedly demolished the contentious magnificent multi-million naira regional headquarters of the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministry Church, Enugu, after a prolonged legal battle.

Our correspondent reports that the operatives belonging to the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority ministry and armed to the teeth mobile policemen stormed the church premises and perfected their demolition exercise after arriving at the church premises at about 9 am on that fateful day.

While the worshippers were in the church observing their prayer session, bulldozers were busy pulling down the structures.

It was reported that the over 5,000 capacity church building which had been occupied by the church in the last 17 years was the first branch of the church in the South-East and South-South geo-political zones of Nigeria. The church positioned few metres away from the Zik Avenue bridge on Uwani had become a subject of contention since the incumbent Governor, Sullivan Chime led administration.

Government had said that the church building was not only wrongly sited but constituted a barrier to the flow of Asata River.

Last year, government moved to demolish the structure but was prevented from doing so by leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and other church leaders in the state who asked government to relocate the church to an alternative place, if it felt strongly that the premises was wrongly occupied.

The church had equally gone to court to stop the demolition at that time.  Later, government was reported to have given the church 20 plots of land at Emeka Ebila Road for their relocation, but the church felt it should be backed by cash to enable it rebuild the multi-million naira church, especially as it allegedly had necessary documents and approvals backing its ownership of the land and the church building.

Worshippers at the church had refused to leave the church hall when the officials asked them to move out, saying they would prefer to be buried with the collapsing walls, but had reneged when they discovered that the demolishers were determined.

Addressing newsmen at the church premises, Pastor Kennedy Ude Ogaranya, regional pastor of the church, described the exercise as an abomination and as a rape of justice.

 “Actually, this is a rape of justice. This case has been in court since September last year. We are yet to get justice. The judge is yet to deliver judgement on this. This is totally contempt of court; this is an abomination”, he declared.

“The land they gave to us was in dispute between the Ngwo people and the Amechi people, so they could not allow us to move into the land. I wrote to the Inspector General of Police and the Enugu State Commissioner for land. They asked the Ngwo people to keep off and just this Saturday, we had access into the land for the first time; we were able to put our pillars and clear the land.

“So, we are yet to enter the land properly and Monday, they came here and gave us three days notice, to quit this place in three days. You gave us a land on Saturday and today being Thursday, you are pulling down the church of God. It is to us a rape of justice against the Body of Christ.

“All our materials are inside, musical instruments, seats, worship items, all our properties. How can we remove them when the two bulldozers are already pulling the structure down?

“Yesterday, I went to the office of the Attorney General of the State, the Commissioner for land, have them letters, asking them to give us more time that we just moved into the land on Saturday, but all our pleas fell on deaf ears. We entered that land on Saturday; it was on Friday that the commissioner spoke to Ngwo people to stay clear of the land.”

But justifying the demolition, the commissioner for ECTDA, Engr. Iyke Ugwegede said that it was done in respect of development control activities of the authority.

Ugwegede said the structure was about 2100 square metres plan size erected on two plots of land located with a total area of approximately 2000 sq metres, stressing that the structure was illegal and unapproved as an application for approval was considered and rejected in March 2012.

He gave reasons for the rejection of the application to include the church’s overbuilding of the property with more than 100% built upon encroaching into stream and road reserves; construction outside the purpose clause of the property as the area was designated for commercial development and not for institutional use.

The government also said there is evidence of structural inability as there was palpable evidence of failure of some of the reinforced concrete elements of the northern end of the basement area of the structure, adding that it had given copious opportunity to the church to make good the illegality ever since then.

The commissioner, also hinted that it had given the church an alternative land allocation of more than 400sq metres, saying government believes in protection of all and sundry in the state especially with the un-seasonal rains and floods of this year resulting in the collapses of three buildings within the capital territory and the loss of one woman and unborn child.

“No responsible government will stand and permit a predictable catastrophe to befall its people before taking appropriate steps.

The state government had also identified other structures which must be brought down to prevent any unsafe condition or illegal structure from remaining,” he stated.