The prompt intervention of the police prevented what could have turned into bloody confrontation at the ECWA Gospel Church Karu, Abuja Sunday morning.
The members of the church were protesting the planned removal of the parish pastor over sexual misconduct by a delegation from the church's District Council Church, DCC.
Trouble started when a faction of the church interrupted the Sunday service demanding that the delegation from the DCC shelve its planned announcement removing the pastor, Rev DA Gyet over allegation of sexual impropriety with his female househelp.
The aggrieved group protested that he was not given fair
hearing before his punishment was meted out.
The service ended in chaos when members of the visiting
panel were forcibly ejected from the church premises.
The police and some elders subsequently had a hectic time
calming frayed nerves and curbing pockets of violence on the church premises.
An aide of the embattled church head told our reporter that
the victim in question was a lady of questionable character who had been linked
to similar controversies in the past.
"We all know the girl Asabe as a person of loose moral
values. We also know she is not a truthful person. She has even confessed that
the pastor is innocent of the allegations levelled at him. But they have swept
her confession under the carpet.
She is being used by some powerful persons at the district
council who want to remove the reverend by all means and place their own
candidate at the head of the church.
Presently the girl making the accusation is nowhere to be
found but they are still going ahead to remove the pastor even though he has
not been allowed to appeal the verdict as allowed by church rules. We will
resist this totally," he said.
After the delegation left in disarray, the elders of the
church appealed to the police to leave the premises so that they could settle
the issue amicably.
But one of the senior police officers on ground insisted the
police would remain until peace was restored.
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