Superintendent, Rev. Paul Emeka, suspended
over allegations of misconduct, financial
misappropriation and other matters by a
group in the church, in this interview, fires
back at his accusers, saying his only offence
was that he tried to protect the church. The
embattled Rev. Emeka was reinstated by a
court order but denied access to his office.
Excerpts:
What is your position on the crisis rocking
Assemblies of God Church?
Everything has immediate and remote causes;
so in a situation like this, you don't really
know where to start. I must let you know that
there was a time we got license to operate the
Evangel University. The Board of Trustees
employed people and, of course, members of
the church, but they began to mis-run the
university, making it too expensive for us to
continue.
They employed without looking back, they
employed without consulting, because, by the
law of the university, statutorily as the General
Superintendent, I am the Chancellor and the
Visitor. I am the proprietor, so I was
concerned that they were spending too much.
We had 73 students but they employed 135
workers. In their first salary schedule, they
brought six million naira. We protested but
helplessly paid.
In the second one, it went up to nine million
naira and it never came down until it came to
thirteen million naira. Each time we called
them to give account, they said no, that they
were not accountable to the BOT or even the
Executive Council of the church, that they
were accountable to the Governing Council. So
there was a problem, nobody was accountable
to us.
So the BOT, in the process of recognising and
adopting a pragmatic approach in the running
of the university, suspended them and set up
a panel to look into how the university was
being run. But these people ran to what we
call Ambassadors of the Kingdom made up of
those my predecessor felt had served the
church and gave them the recognition as
'Ambassadors of the Kingdom'.
It was not meant to be an association; it has
no place in our constitution or organogram of
the church. But somehow the people
(Ambassadors) came together and began to see
themselves as a pressure group or the
political arm of the church. The Vice
Chancellor of the university happens to be a
member of the body and he ran to them and
called on them to help him out.
They came to the Executive Council (EC) to see
us and we asked them to wait, that we will
invite the BOT and explain everything to them.
They laid their complaints that the young
university will soon be closed, that they were
not happy that the people were suspended and
didn't care to know the reason for our action.
Few weeks later, they came up with a write up
that they addressed to the Presbyters (these
are pastors in Assemblies of God and are up to
2,000 in number). They didn't address it to the
EC members which is the highest decision
making body of the church. This was where
trouble started. All of us had different
approach towards resolving it.
Germany house
They came up with so many allegations that
didn't have to do with the university but other
things. They alleged many things against me.
For instance, they talked about a house we
bought in Germany. The allegation associated
with the Germany house purchase are very
shapeless, the story keeps increasing by the
day. They also alleged that we created the
Assemblies of God Ministers Benefit Fund.
The pastors every month make contributions to
that fund and, each time a pastor retires, he
is given what he contributed with interest and
the balance remains with the church. They also
alleged that I made a pledge to the Pentecostal
Fellowship of Nigeria without consulting the
EC, that my brother-in-law was the one hiring
equipment and being given two million naira
each time we were to do a programme and
helping himself from that.
The truth is not far-fetched because the
purchase of the project in Germany was started
by my predecessor, the advance which was
twenty million naira was paid by the General
Treasurer who was serving under him and later
on there was this election that brought me in
when he retired and we continued from there.
The church obtained a loan from GTB and it
was the responsibility of the General Treasurer
and the accountants there to pay and they paid
and kept remitting the money to the company
until the transaction was completed. I didn't
have anything to do with the money, all I did
was to go and see if it was true, the General
Secretary equally went and the Assistant
General Superintendent also went, all these
things are in our minutes.
But when they were making their allegations,
they didn't do them as if all these things are in
the minutes; they talked as if I woke up one
day and carried the money to buy a property
in Germany.
Retired pastors fund
The allegation on the Pastors Benefit Fund
started about 16 years ago. Each pastor
contributes automatically to the fund and goes
home with what he contributed on retirement
with interest. But I discovered that each
month, all the ministers of Assemblies of God
contribute an average of thirty million naira
but the ministers who retire in a given month
don't take up to six million naira and there was
a Board set up to use that money and invest.
It was from there that we built our bank called
AG Homes; that continued for many years until
I became the General Superintendent. I
proposed before the EC that here you have one
man managing the millions of naira that the
ministers are contributing and here you have
the bank. He is the Managing Director of the
bank as well as the Chairman of the Board,
that it would be nice that we separate it so
that he will continue to be the Chairman of the
Board and another person the Managing
Director. The Committee bought the idea.
I equally said that the ministers retiring, and
given what they contributed with interest and
the money remains there, they are not coming
back at any time to benefit from the
investment that their money was put into. I
said the only way these people could have a
share is that since this body doesn't give them
pension and since what the General Council
pays to them as pension monthly is too small,
we should do something to enhance their
living standard from the money.
By the time the former Board was handing
over, they had already about N2.5billion and I
said it was possible to take part of this money
to increase the pastors pension so that they
don't suffer too much. They accepted and
adopted it unanimously. I proposed N350
million but they handed over about
N1.5million and said they had invested the
rest.
We said they should give us N200million so
that we start helping the retired pastors and
they sent it from AG Homes to the General
Council account. It did not go to my personal
account. The General Treasurer received it,
receipted for it; but when they were writing,
they started alleging and talking as if I had
direct access to the money and using it on my
own. It was credited to the General Council
account.
Donation to PFN
On the allegation about making donation to the
PFN, we went to the NAC (National Advisory
Committee) meeting of the PFN, all the church
leaders were there. So there was this
spontaneous fund raised, people were pledging
fifty to one hundred million, but, on behalf the
Assemblies of God, I pledged ten million naira
and that was not to say I paid it immediately.
When I came back, I brought the matter
before the Executive Council meeting and they
approved that the General Treasurer should
pay. Nobody gave me cash, it was a cheque
credited in the account of the PFN. But here
they said the Executive Committee did not
know about it even when they paid willingly.
Another allegation about my in-law hiring
equipment; the truth of the matter is that
whenever we are doing a big programme, there
is a central committee that will meet with sub-
committees.
At a time, the committee told us they now had
a company owned by one Okezie and that they
supply power and sound to the government at
Okpara Square each time they had a
programme and that if we would hire them,
they would do us good.
We told them to bring them and they brought
them. The central planning committee would
always haggle the price with this man
depending on the nature and duration of the
programme.
We would agree and immediately we agree on
price the manager of the company would go to
the accounts office where he would be given a
cheque and that ends it.
Nobody gives me the money and that is the
structure of the church. The General
Superintendent does not have anything to do
with money, we take the decisions and it is the
responsibility of the General Treasurer with the
people working under him to take action. Now
when the Ambassadors brought their
complaints and started alleging all these things,
they were not in a position to know since they
are not in the organogram of the church.
It was somebody that made them to know and
they came up with these allegations that never
existed. They are alleging over N450 million.
The Executive Committee members working
with me who know when all these decisions
were taken, I thought they would come to my
aid when these allegations were raised but
some of them were of the opinion that these
Ambassadors will be brought and they would
be made to repeat the allegations and I would
answer.
That continued until a certain time when they
appealed to the General Committee. The
General Committee, judicially speaking, is
higher than the Executive Committee, the
Executive Committee makes decisions. The
General Committee is called twice a year but if
a General Committee is needed, the General
Superintendent can on his own call it but if it
is called without the General Superintendent,
the constitution says they will obtain 33
percent signatories of the members of the
General Committee and they will lay it on the
table of the General
Superintendent and he will invite the people
for the General Committee and he equally will
determine the terms to be discussed with
members of the Executive Committee. Now
they called the General Committee without
respect to this process. They were not able to
obtain it because the constitution says that the
General Committee will serve as a court of final
appeal and I told them that if the General
Committee will serve as the final appeal, it
means that the Executive Committee will serve
as court of first appeal.
First of all, we have to look at it so that if the
General Committee sits, we will now tell them
the extent to which we have looked at it. But I
never knew there was a political plan to be
hatched that day. They never allowed me to
execute it as constitution demands and that
was on the 6th of March. I told them I
wouldn't attend because it fell short of
constitutional demands.
There were text messages here and there but,
before that day, I had called the police to say I
was not comfortable with the meeting and
asked them to stop it but the police said no,
they didn't have the right to stop a private
meeting of the church, that all I needed to do
was to obtain a court order to stop it.
Court order
I invited my lawyer to prepare a court order to
the effect. It was not to be a court order
against the Assemblies of God but against
certain individuals I perceived were
responsible for the General Committee. But
along the line, I called the lawyer and said I
would want to terminate the suit, that I would
be misunderstood and I asked him to leave it.
But on that very day of the meeting,
somebody from among the Ambassadors and
the eleven Executive Committee members
standing against me was sent to go to court
and look for the abandoned suit and he
brought it to the General Committee.
In that meeting, the Legal Adviser of the
church was the one who read it that the
General Superintendent had taken the church
to court and should be suspended. But some
others said he didn't take the church to court,
because the Trustees are not there, the
General Council is not there and Assemblies of
God is not there but those there are
individuals, but they wouldn't listen.
He also failed to let them know that the suit
was abandoned and the court wrote to that
effect, that the suit was not in existence.
Nobody was served any summons.
What is happening is that there is a group of
men in the church whose interests became
threatened and they felt I was the one
anchoring it.
But when I was making the reorganization, I
didn't deliberately do it to step on any toe, I
was doing what I felt would help the church
to go forward because to me, I didn't feel
comfortable that every day you stand before
the church to go and raise fund, instead of
people hearing sermons, you are telling them
about money whereas we have ventures here
and there that could yield money for the
church.
Without worrying people, our offering and
tithe should be enough. That was my aim. We
had money. If you invest N250 million very
well, it will increase the revenue of the church.
As at last year, the pastors fund generated
N2.5 billion from the time that scheme
started, all that had been paid to the pastors
was only N123million in 16 years, up to N300
million and more was spent on office.
The purpose of that scheme was not to run
office or other things but to help our pastors
in retirement but many of them are suffering
and we felt free to our conscience to allow
them in that state and pay lip service to our
holiness. They said Rev Chidi Okoroafor
becomes the acting General Superintendent.
This is what has been rocking Assemblies of
God.
But we learnt some members of the church
later went to court. Is this true?
I didn't go to court. Dr Nathan Udeze and
another one who is a lecturer in one of our
Bible schools, Dr Ekenedilichukwu Offodile,
they didn't like what happened, they went to
court and sued and the nature of the suit was
in representative capacity, not only for the two
of them but for any other person who did not
like what happened.
We went to the court for hearing three times
and the court said, return to status quo and,
by this I am still the General Superintendent
and Chidi remains the assistant and there is
nothing like acting. Yet our people have
decided to ignore the court order.
This is what is happening and on daily basis
they keep writing against me. In the Assemblies
of God, the maximum punishment is
suspension; after suspending me, you say you
are setting up a panel, so when the committee
must have concluded its work, what other
punishment will you give me? If you have
allegations of fraud, the police is there to look
into it.
How do you feel about what is happening and
at what point can you leave it for God. What
will be your advice to members?
I have already left it for God. What I am doing
is simply what God wants me to do. I have
tried my best; a man does not praise himself. I
have not laid bad example – morally speaking
or with money. You cannot say that you found
Paul Emeka messing up with women or in fact
that you suspect him at all.
The salary I take is enough for me; forget
about what they are writing about. Think about
it, in a corporate organization, you cannot
steal money alone, you cannot go and take half
a million alone, there is a Treasurer and you
cannot in the name of General Superintendent
pounce on people's money and you begin to
cart it away. The national leadership of PFN
has come and they keep turning them here and
there. They should tell the world what is
happening.
Somebody is retired and wants to be the father
of the Assemblies of God and that is why I
believe it cannot last for long because the
people do not like it and God himself does not
like what is happening. But we will not chicken
out for them to continue even if I am out.
No comments:
Post a Comment