In the early hours of Sunday, Pastor Emmanuel Samuel and members of Higherlife Generation Church situated in Owerri, Imo state capital got ready for service but unknown to them destruction lurked.
What should have been a beautiful Sunday service in the presence of God was turned into chaos, physical assault of pastor Emmanuel and the destruction of church properties worth millions by a group of suspected thugs led by a gun-wielding Commissioner of Police of Umuchukwu, Orji station identified as Henry Njoku.
In this exclusive interview with footages of the destruction and physical assault, Pastor Emmanuel Samuel bares it all with Legit.ng’s Victor Duru on what actually transpired.
Pastor Emmanuel Samuel said it started at 7:00 am In a telephone conversation, the general overseer of Higherlife narrated that the incident started at 7:00 am.
Emmanuel said that while he was on his way to the church with his family, he received calls that people were at the venue with a bulldozer.
The aim was to bring down the church with the bulldozer. In his words: “What actually happened was that we came to church this morning (Sunday, October 30). Infact, before we got to church, I received calls that some persons came with a bulldozer to demolish the church.
“I said they must be at the wrong place. I asked who the persons were, they said they don’t know. “I then told them to take videos and send me the pictures as we were still on our way coming.
They said their phones were seized, preventing them from taking any recordings. Before I got to the church, they have started demolishing the church already.” Pastor Emmanuel said he got to the church and was rough handled.
“I entered inside the church to pray and thank God, they held me there, tore my clothes and began to beat me. They dragged me on the ground which can be seen in the videos.
Before the videos, I was severely beaten inside and wasn’t allowed to go outside or have it recorded.
“The ones people recorded were as I was being dragged out. Prior to the incident, we weren’t served any court paper or any notice to vacate the premise, they just came on a Sunday morning to demolish the church. It happened around 7 am.”
See some videos from the incident in the tweet below:
Imo police officer fingered behind the church demolition When quizzed on CP Henry Njoku’s motivation, pastor Emmanuel stated that the officer did the destruction on behalf of a friend.
“CP henry Njoku was behind the demolition. He is not the owner of the land. The person he is fighting for is a friend. He was the one slapping and beating me. He pulled a gun on my head.” The GO said they acquired the space on a rental basis from the owner who is based in the United States, Chief Patrick Azuoma.
He said when CP Henry’s people laid claims to the land, Chief Patrick sued them and that the matter is still in court, but that they decided to take laws into their hands.
“Our landlord asked these people to bring proof that supported their claim of owning the land. He took them to court but they refused to appear in court.
“Some time ago, they took me to Orji police station and I explained that the land doesn’t belong to me. Even last week, they have been dodging being served court papers and have frustrated the bailiff.” The pastor lamented the huge church properties that were destroyed, saying he won’t keep quiet.
“Only the tent alone is worth millions. The equipment alone is over N15 million and they include power amps, and chairs. I don’t want to underestimate or overestimate it but properties lost are running into millions.
“God is the fighter and it is his house that was demolished. But I will not keep quiet.”
The land owner’s son corroborates Pastor Emmanuel’s account In a telephone conversation on Monday, Prince Ken Joseph, the son of Chief Patrick affirmed Pastor Emmanuel’s statements, saying the land was theirs and it was rented to the church.
“The land in question is our land. My dad rented it out to Pastor Emmanuel Samuel. The church had been using it for some time only for one Pedro to come out of the blues to lay claim to the same land.”
He said Pedro was sued but they refused to show up in court. Prince added that CP Henry knowing fully well that the matter was in court chose to take laws into his hands. He added: “We took him (Pedro) to court but he refused to show up.
The matter is still pending in court. Surprisingly, one Commissioner of Police from Umuchukwu, Orji named Henry Njoku came into the picture. We told him that this land in question is in court and that he should come to court to iron it out.
“CP Henry said that he is bigger than the court. He doesn’t want to go to any court. He directed that the pastor leaves the place or he would send his boys to destroy the place. The barrister on the case wrote to Henry warning him that he cannot take matters into his own hands as the case is still in court.
“Early Sunday morning, Henry came with caterpillar and thugs to destroy the church.
Henry and his cohorts had been served paper since September.” While expressing sadness over the incident, Prince said the matter said will be taken up legally.
“We want to take the matter up. It is painful.”
