The South South of the church in a statement today, accused the church members of displaying marginalization, gross injustice in ministers’ remuneration, unhealthy rivalry among ministers, inefficiency and escalating administrative and financial malfeasance against the South South zone.
The Chairman of the Central Working Committee of the South South General Council of the church, Evangelist Nsikak Akpan, announced the breakaway of the zone from the church.
Akpan said the zone decided to break away from the General Council administration as a means of entrenching some degree of self-governance on all the zones under the general council administration of the church.
Akpan spoke in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, on Saturday at a press conference, which was attended by other executive members of the church.
Also present were executive members of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State.
Akpan said the General Council had grown too big and as such was breeding inefficiency and too expensive to run.
He said this has led to unhealthy rivalry, resulting in a supremacy battle between the General Superintendent of the church, Prof. Paul Emeka, and the executive committee members under Dr. Chidi Okoroafor.
He said there was no end in sight to the unhealthy rivalry and the inefficiency as Emeka and Okoroafor had engaged in an unending legal tussle that had painted the church in a bad light.
Akpan said: “The South-South zone of the Assemblies of God has called for the decentralization of the General Council administration to end marginalization and gross injustice in ministers’ remuneration; unhealthy rivalry among ministers; inefficiency and escalating administrative and financial malfeasance.
“The only panacea to the growing crisis enveloping the Assemblies of God in Nigeria, leading to the birth of two General Councils, which often result in fresh crises in the church across the nation, is to decentralize and reorganize the General Council into six or 12 autonomous General Councils with little economic and administrative power at the centre.” [myad]
