One of the pastors identified as Nelson Iroegbo was forcefully arrested by personnel of the Nigerian police in Uyo, Akwa Ibom and is currently in detention without being granted access to his relatives.
Some Nigerian pastors who graduated from Kingdom College Ministry in the Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State have accused the General Overseer of the church, Rev. Emmanuel Ukoha of using state security operatives, particularly the police to intimidate and harass them over disagreements with him.
SaharaReporters learned that the pastors began to have disagreements with the general overseer after leaving his ministry.
One of the pastors identified as Nelson Iroegbo was forcefully arrested by personnel of the Nigerian police in Uyo, Akwa Ibom and is currently in detention without being granted access to his relatives.
His wife, Chioma, told SaharaReporters about her husband’s arrest and detention on Monday.
She said: “My husband and some other pastors started having issues with the GO (General Overseer) because they confronted him when church members accused him of harassment.
“Since 2022, he has been harassing and intimidating my husband with the police. He is currently with them (police) and I’m also in the police station to see him as I’m speaking with you. I heard they are trying to fly him to Abuja soon.”
“My husband was arrested inside my shop today (Monday) in Uyo without telling him his offence and when he insisted on not following them, the police said they would handcuff him and force him to surrender,” she added.
Another pastor, Ikechukwu Chukwuemeka, who also alleged intimidation, said after he graduated from the ministry’s bible college, he was posted to one of its outstations in Abuja by the cleric.
He said he spent a few years in Abuja before being transferred to Asaba, and from Asaba, “I was able to establish the Kingdom Ministry Area 4, Ogidi, in 2011 at the salary of only N10,000.00 (Ten Thousand Naira), and with express instructions not to accept any gift from any of the church members”.
Ikechukwu said he filed a notice of application for an order enforcing a fundamental right against Rev. Emmanuel Ukoha; AC. David Osuola (The Area Commander, Ogidi Area Command) and the Commissioner of Police, (Anambra State Police Command) at a High Court, Idemili Judicial Division in Anambra State, earlier this year.
Ukoha, Osuola and the state police commissioner are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Respondents, according to an unsigned court document made available to SaharaReporters.
“The members were also warned not to extend any gift to any of the ministers including me,” he said.
He continued: “One of the rules of engagement between the ministers, including me, and the GO is that any minister that establishes a new station is entitled to one-third of the proceeds of the station but the GO never complied with the rule, and over time, it became obvious that I could no longer take care of myself let alone my family.
“After every effort for the GO to improve and lift me from modern-day slavery or servitude fell on deaf ears, I was pushed to start a private business to augment my meagre salary; but little did I know that I had stepped on a viper’s tail.
“Since I started the said private business, the GO, who does not want the progress of his ministers, resorted to the use of his subordinates to make life unbearable for me to the extent that when I bought a car from the proceeds of my said business and brought same for his blessings, the GO called a general program of his kingdom ministry thereafter and claimed that I stole his ministry’s money to buy the car to pollute the hearts of the other ministers who were all wallowing in abject poverty.
“Shortly after the car incident, precisely last year (2023), the GO posted one of his senior pastors named Charles to my Area 4 Ogidi.
He said Pastor Charles had disclosed that he was sent to investigate him and “make things difficult for me and that I should not disclose the information to anyone”.
He said, “Pastor Charles eventually arrived in Ogidi in my absence and immediately started quarrelling with the four junior ministers working under me, and as the person in charge of the Ogidi province, I was pushed to send him away from the station.
“After the above incident, the junior ministers working under me were sent back to the ministry’s camp at Ozu Abam where the GO detained and pressured them to lay false allegations against me but they resisted. When the strategy failed, the GO demanded that I should appear before him at the Ozu Abam Camp to take an oath not to leave his ministry otherwise I would die but having gotten wind of the trap, I refused to go to the camp.
“Having seen that my life was in danger, I stopped attending the GO’s kingdom ministry but the 1st respondent started sending some ministers for me to return to the church which I reluctantly acceded to.
“Since I returned to the GO’s ministry, the GO refused to pay me the monthly stipends. Consequently, in January 2024, I insisted on collecting my entitlement to one-third of the income at my station/province at Ogidi.
“That after I had collected the one-third entitlement, the GO directed one of his senior pastors named Pastor Jerry to forward a WhatsApp message to all the members at Ogidi, informing them that the Area 4 Ogidi under my care has been delisted and that I have been removed from ministership and kingdom ministry, and that all that wants to follow me to form my own ministry are free and all who still want to continue with kingdom ministry should go to any nearby fellowship of choice and register and continue with their course outside Ogidi axis.
“Despite my wife’s pleas for the GO to withdraw the directive and allow the ministry to continue its programs in Ogidi, the GO, acting through the said Pastor Jerry, declined and consequently all the junior ministers working under me and some members left the Ogidi station and ceased further activities thereafter.
“Contrary to the expectations of the GO, some members remained with me. And envy prompted the GO to start fighting me again through some of the church members who had left on his directives by holding parallel church activities at now my fellowship venue at Ogidi station which the GO had abandoned for me while erroneously believing that I would not succeed.
“When I raised concerns about their actions which flouted the directive of the GO, the GO got me invited to the Ogidi Police Station on February 14, 2024 where I was arrested and detained from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm before I was granted administrative bail on the intervention of one of my lawyer named Pat Agbata, Esquire.
“After my release from police custody, the I.P.O scheduled a meeting of the parties to ascertain whether the GO was aware of the said WhatsApp message, sent by Pastor Jerry directing the members to leave the Ogidi station for me, before he reported me to the police but the 1st respondent failed to honour the several invitations extended to him.
“That despite the GO having not honoured his several invitations, the I.P.O started playing pranks with the investigation, which made me petition the 2nd respondent to take over the investigation of the case. The police visited the fellowship venue, saw things himself and consequently directed the GO’s followers to stop further activities at the venue.
“That while the matter was still pending before the police, one man intervened to settle the matter but the GO and his cohorts never honoured the settlement meetings, but secretly connived with the police handling the matter and the I.P.O handling the matter to go after me but met my absence on three different occasions they came to further arrest, detain and torture me.”
“The GO’s followers suddenly flouted the order of the police by preventing me from worshipping at the fellowship venue. I now live in perpetual fear knowing that the aim of the GO is to further detain and waste my life in police custody,” he added.
Similarly, another pastor simply identified as Boniface lamented how the Ukoha allegedly sent someone to his church in Benin Republic to take over his ministry.
He said, “For me, the man tried to take over my ministry but it was difficult for him because I am in a foreign land. However, I did not experience any physical harassment like others.”
When SaharaReporters called the Senior Investigator from the IGP Monitoring Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, Chinedum Blessed, who was handling the matter for comment, the officer denied any harassment or intimidation by the police against the pastors.
He said, “If you read the message sent to him (Ikechukwu), you would see there is no form of harassment. He said the matter is before the court, why can’t he wait for the court to decide if we actually harass him or not? Or is he trying to do a media trial? In fact, asking me to comment on this matter is even pre-judicial and I would urge him to follow the due process on this matter.”
When our reporter contacted Rev. Ukoha for his reaction to the allegations, his terse message reads, “Investigative journalism is professional; gossip kills; don't live on gossips without proof.”