MEMBERS of Embrace International Church in Erunwon, Ikorodu, Lagos, were on Sunday locked out by the police.
The church was shut because of a face-off between their pastor, Reverend Isaac Adeyemi, and authorities of Foursquare Gospel Church. Adeyemi was a priest in Foursquare before he left for the church.
The worshippers protested against what they called the ‘’illegal’’ closure of their church, accusing Foursquare of using the police to intimidate their pastor.
But, Foursquare denied the allegation, saying it was only trying to stop Adeyemi and his supporters from gaining access to its property.
Carrying placards with inscriptions, such as ‘’Foursquare, leave our church alone,” “Freedom of worship threatened by police,” “Embrace International Church is different from Foursquare Church,’’ “Foursquare, say the truth, stop lying,’’ the worshippers lined the road to the church, protesting.
They said the matter was in the Court of Appeal and wondered why the police were in such a hurry to act.
Our correspondent, who was at the church, sighted a detachment of men of Ikorodu Police Division at its entrance. Another team of policemen from the Lagos State Police Command was inside the church building.
The Ikorodu policemen left on sighting reporters.
The protesters’ spokesman, Mr Samuel Turoti, condemned Foursquare for allegedly instigating the police to seal off the church when the matter is in court.
He said the injunction Foursquare was wielding was not against their church, but Adeyemi.
Adeyemi, he said, was until a few years ago the pastor of a nearby Foursquare parish before he was suspended. Adeyemi then became the pastor of their church, Turoti added.
He said: ‘’ What we saw on Thursday was uncalled for because the police came here at about noon to lock out members of this church and seal off the church building as a result of a court injunction they wanted to enforce on a member of the church, of which the said injunction is not against the entire church.
‘’This injunction has been appealed and all the parties involved in the suit were duly served including the plaintiff (Foursquare Gospel Church). Once an injunction is appealed, those involved in the suit must stop further actions until the appeal is heard or determined. Now, the appeal has not been determined, yet police have come to lock up our church, so that is where the problem lies and what the police did was illegal.
“I don’t know the grouse Foursquare Church has against Revd Adeyemi, all I know is that they claimed he has been suspended and that he should leave the church. But you can’t take what you don’t actually own; the major problem is that Foursquare Church wants to lay claim to our church building. Unfortunately for Foursquare, the document of the land on which the church was built does not confer ownership on them as they did not contribute a dime to the acquisition of the property and construction of the building on it’’.
Reacting, National Secretary of Foursquare Gospel Church the Reverend Ikechuku Ugbaja said the protesters were not saying the truth.
Ugbaja, who spoke with The Nation on phone, said Adeyemi was suspended for alleged gross misconduct and taken to court when he continued to misbehave even after apologising to the church.
He said: “In Foursquare Gospel Church, all the ministers are temporarily employed; they can be transferred, disciplined and fired. He (Adeyemi) refused to answer his last official query and was transferred to another church but he refused to go. He began to remove things that have resemblance to our church and was converting our church to his own property.
‘’He was therefore dismissed and it (disclaimer notice) was published in the newspapers. He was taken to court and the court gave a restraining order restricting him, his agents and cohorts from entering the church building. He refused to obey the court order until we went back to the court following which court bailiffs were accompanied by policemen to lock up the place.”
