The Crisis rocking the Assemblies of God Church Nigeria last weekend took a new turn with allegations and counter allegations regarding alleged misuse of pension fund of the church estimated at over N3billion.
While the camp led by Rev. Dr. Chidi Okoroafor issued a statement to deny reports that it misappropriated the pension fund belonging to retired ministers of the church, the Rev. Prof. Paul Emeka camp advised Okoroafor to stop spreading falsehood and confusing the general public in its endless media war against Prof. Emeka.
The church asked the Rev. Okoroafor-led faction to face an invitation by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris to answer questions relating to the management of the church’s welfare scheme, otherwise known as “Assemblies of God Ministers Benefit Scheme (AMGBS)”.
It will be recalled that crisis broke out in the church in 2014 when Rev Okoroafor’s group announced the suspension of Rev. Prof. Emeka as the General Superintendent of the church, leading to formation of two factions as well as two General Superintendents, and unending litigations.
Meanwhile, Rev. Okoroafor and the General Treasurer of the church, Rev. Vincent Alaje, according to the church, were invited last week by the police Force Headquarters over a petition by some church leaders in which they demanded accountability over the pension funds management. But in a statement in Enugu by Rev. Okoroafor’s camp signed by the church’s General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Godwin Amaowoh, while admitting that the church has ministers’ benefit scheme, said it was not a pension scheme.
Amaowoh added that the factional General Superintendent, Rev. Emeka was not qualified for the welfare scheme because he took a loan of N17 million from the AG-Homes and has not paid back.
However in a quick rebuttal on behalf of the Prof. Emeka-led group, the Coordinator of General Council, Business Unit of the church, Emmanuel Otobo, said that the Okoraofor-led group was being clever by half, by trying to mix up the management and operations of AG Homes (a mortgage institution) and Assemblies of God Ministers Benefit Scheme (AGMBS), a kind of pension welfare scheme.
He said that although Prof. Emeka took a loan of N17 million some years back from AG Homes, with the arrangement for the financial institution to be deducting the money from his salaries, the sum of N15 million had already been paid back through deductions before the crisis in the church started in 2014 and the Okoroafor group stopped his salary.
According to him, the church owes Prof. Emeka more than N200 million as accumulated salary and other entitlements since 2014, which a High Court, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) advised the church to pay him during various interventions in the crisis.
In spite of that, according to Otobo, the AG Homes is still in possession of the certificates and documents of the land which Prof. Emeka staked as collateral for the loan.
The church condemned the habit of running to the media to confuse the public each time the Rev. Okoroafor’s group was invited by the police and when the matter was before the court, admonishing them to face the police invitation and leave Rev. Prof. Emeka alone.
