Protest as Anglican bishop drags 3 priests to court

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- Some members of the Anglican diocese in Imo state had staged a protest over crisis rocking the church

- The Bishop of the diocese, Rt. Rev. C.B.N. Otti, had dragged three priests to court over their refusal to vacate the church premises

- The priests were sued by the prelate for refusing to submit their ordination certificates to him

Some members of the Anglican Diocese on the Lake in the Oguta Local Government Area of Imo state on Wednesday, November 8, staged a peaceful protest over a crisis rocking the diocese.

The Punch reports that the Bishop of the diocese, Rt. Rev. C.B.N. Otti, had dragged three senior priests of the church, Ven. Canon Eugene Onwubie, Rev. Eugene Iheanacho and Ven. Caleb Udom, to court for refusing to vacate the church premises where they resided with their families.

NAIJ.com gathered that the priests were officially in charge of St. Mathias Anglican Church, Nkwesi and Emmanuel Church, Izombe.

The prelate sued them for refusing to submit their ordination certificates to him, a situation that made him to issue the priests a one week notice to vacate their official residences.

The members carried placards with inscriptions such as, ‘Bishop Otti, stop this intimidation now or face our anger’, ‘Bishop Otti, is Diocese on the Lake your private business?, ‘Bishop Otti, pay your priests, ‘Oguta youths say no to your intimidation, harassment and humiliation’, among others.

Protest as Anglican bishop drags 3 priests to court

The scene of the protest. Photo credit: Punch

It was gathered that while briefing journalists, spokesman for the protesters, Edwin Onyemaechi, who is from St. Mathias Anglican Church, Nkwesi, described the bishop’s action against the affected priests as unfortunate.

He said the matter was minor and could have been settled in-house instead of going to court.

Onyemaechi noted that the protest would continue to Abuja so that the Anglican Primate could wade into the matter.

Another protester, who identified himself only as Chimamkpa, lamented that the matter was dragging the name of the church in the mud.

Another protester, who did not want to be identified, said the crux of the matter was that the bishop accused the priests of withholding the money they were supposed to remit to the diocese from their parishes, an action the bishop viewed as gross misconduct and disobedience.

When the priests didn’t bulge, he said the bishop demanded that they return their ordination certificates to him and cease to be priests of the Anglican Church.

The priests, who were allegedly owed salaries by the bishop, reportedly ignored the order.

The disobedience, it was learnt, led to the bishop issuing notices to quit to the priests to vacate the premises of the churches they presided over.

According to the Punch, the three priests said they were registered as ordained priests at the Owerri diocese and that surrendering their certificates and licences would mean that they had been sacked by the church.

They expressed worry over the continued silence of the Anglican Primate, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, on the matter.

They accused the bishop of taking the law into his own hands by not waiting for the intervention of the Anglican Primate.

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The bishop, who spoke with Punch on the telephone through Mr. Chidi Emeagi, said the three priests chose to disobey his instruction that all the diocesan priests who were ordained outside the diocese should submit their ordination certificates for new ones.

He said he had to approach the court to lawfully compel the “disobedient” priests to obey his instruction, which he said was in tandem with the laws of the Anglican Church.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that there was huge celebration as Bishop Oyedepo dedicated a 1 billion naira 1,000 seat capacity facility at Victoria Garden City, Lekki, Ajah, Lagos.

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