The Strong Tower Biblical Church was yesterday evening reduced to rubble by officials of Owerri Capital Development Authority (OCDA). This was just as the officials of the church have accused the state government of lawlessness.According to eyewitnesses, the officials of the OCDA, led by the General Manager, Mr. Chima Anozie, stormed the premises of the church situated within the Owerri Industrial Layout along the Owerri/ Onitsha Eexpressway with armed mobile policemen and two bulldozers and pulled down the property.
Some of the members, who were shocked at the demolition of their church, alleged that the OCDA officials carried out the exercise on the orders of Governor Rochas Okorocha, whom they accused of victimising the senior pastor for allegedly refusing to lease the land to him.
Contacted, Anozie said: “There was no approval for the church building and notices had been served to the church asking them to vacate the land, because the land fell within the industrial layout.”
The OCDA boss also denied that the agency was being used by the governor to persecute the church and its leader, adding that the agency was doing its job of ensuring that buildings within the capital city followed the city’s master plan.
He said the church had earlier gone to court to stop the OCDA from carrying out its constitutional duties, claiming the court would not stop the authority as it was not the court’s business to get involved in land disputes.
But counsel to the senior pastor of the church, Chief Gerald Aririguzoh, dismissed the claim of the agency that the church was erected without approval. He said the church was there as the bonafide owner of the land since 2010 by writ of possession signed by Justice Ohakwe, who delivered the judgement.
“It was even the court officials that moved out the former occupants of the land, Imo Palm Producers in order for us to move in,” he said.
He disclosed that the state government had approached the pastor severally for him to lease the place to it to use for the activities of Imo State Palm Produce, a request he said the pastor refused because “we are not ready to lease out the land until our matter is determined on appeal.”
He added that on June 6, the Commissioner for Lands, the permanent secretary, the OCDA officials and those of the ministry of lands went into the church again and dropped a “contravention notice after the senior pastor again refused to lease the land to the state government .
“They said the church was there without OCDA approval of change of purpose clause. We quickly ran to court three days after on June 9, 2014 to contend that we don’t need approval of change of purpose clause going by the purpose of the release of that place. When we applied for the release of that place, we stated the reason for which that place would be used when released and government released that land based on that application. We believe that one is automatic and therefore there is no need requesting for another approval,” he said.
He added: “I’m very surprised that the same present administration, which preaches the rule of law, could overlook the processes of the court served on them and resort to self-help when the matter is before the court by pulling down the church.”
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