Rev. Emeka was reportedly ejected from the Church’s national secretariat located at Independent Layout, Enugu State, following a Supreme Court judgement affirming the Reverend’s sack by an Appeal Court in February.
Emeka had decried the manner in which a combined team of the police and army operatives, allegedly brutalized members of his church during the raid.
The Reverend claimed that the security agencies, allegedly acting on invitation of the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Danmalam Mohammed, had teargassed the church’s national secretariat to disperse its members.
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Reacting to Emeka’s claims, the security agencies have both denied any wrongdoings, saying they acted according to law.
“You might be aware that the church has been in court for sometime now, a Supreme Court judgment was given in favour of a party and I learnt the police in Enugu were there to enforce the court order.
“Our patrol team was also within the general area, in a staging position to assist the police in case of impending breakdown of law and order. It seems that did not go down well with the losing party,” Vanguard quoted Col. Sagir Musa, Deputy Director, Army Public Relations of 82 Division in Enugu, as saying.
Whereas the spokesperson of Enugu State Police Command, Ebere Amaraizu, said: “The Police provided security to the officers of the Supreme Court and that of the state High Court, who were in Enugu to perform their lawful duties at the secretariat of the Assemblies of God Church and that was based on the need not to give way to violence and eventual loss of lives and destruction of property.
“If security were not given to the court officials, there would have been loss of lives and destruction of property since the court officials had encounter with the other factional members of the church, who were already resisting the court officials before the intervention of policemen.
“Our concern is maintenance of peace and prevention of any disorder that will bring about breakdown of law and order as well as protection of lives and property.
“Police operatives therefore accompanied the court officials for the purposes of security and for them to perform their functions.”