Friday, March 1, 2013

N5m largesse: Church members threaten to sue bishop



The crisis triggered off by the management of the N5m donated by Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State to St. Paul Millennium Church,Odo Owa Ekiti seems to be heightening as some church members threatened on Thursday to sue the Bishop of Ekiti West Anglican Diocese, Most Rev. Oludare Oke.
The members were angry with the bishop for demoting the church’s vicar, Rev. Mike Ogunniyi, from an archdeacon to a canon. The bishop demoted Oguniyi because he disragarded his (bishop) advice to save the money. Instead the vicar bought a N3m bus for evangelism and renovated the church.
Two members of the parish Provincial Church Council told PUNCH Metro that some church members had resolved to drag the bishop to the court if he refused to reverse his decision on the vicar.
The members had protested the demotion on Sunday, preventing those that turned up for the Sunday service from having access to the church.
The church members, who pleaded not to be named on Thursday, explained that the PCC decided on what to use the donation for and the pastor was just informed of the decision of the council.
One of them said, “The demotion of the vicar has a damaging effect on the status of the church because the church could no longer be regarded as the seat of the archdeaconry. In fact, we might be left with no other option but to pull out of the diocese.
“The venerable cannot decide what to do with the money. The governor announced the donation to St. Paul Millennium Church in the presence of everybody during the burial of late Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye.
“The cheque   was written in the name of St. Paul’s Millennium Church and it was written at the back of the cheque that it was to be used for evangelism. “
They (church members) said that the money was spent for the purpose for which it was meant adding that the bishop had no justifiable reason to demote the vicar.
The Punch

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