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A pastor’s wife, Mrs Charity Charles Oghu, has accused the Gateway International Church, a Port Harcourt based Pentecostal church, of intimidating her husband and causing his arrest by the Police over a parcel of land.
Mrs Charity Oghu also alleged that Gateway Church is responsible for the destruction of property on the said piece of land amounting to millions of Naira with the help of the Police.
Speaking to newsmen over the weekend in Port Harcourt, she said her husband, who is also a pastor of Sought Out Intercessory Ministries Church in Rumuekini in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State was arrested by operatives of the Inspector General of Police monitoring unit in Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State on the orders of the Gateway Church and his whereabouts remain unknown.
“My husband bought this land from Rumuekini and Rumuosi and he paid for and obtained the legal documents binding him and owners of the land. Gateway Church went to bulldoze the land and he went there to stop them and they arrested him and took him to the IGP Monitoring Unit in Aluu and ordered the Police not to release him.
“When the IPO came and we arranged for his release, they came and ordered him not to release my husband. And took him away from there and I don’t know where they’ve taken him to.
“As it is now, let the whole world know that my husband’s disappearance is in respect of the Gateway arrest. My husband is a pastor, Pastor Charles Ibiba Oghu. I’m calling on the Rivers State government; I’m calling on the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to intervene on this matter to tell Gateway Church to release my husband from wherever they’ve taken him to and to leave our land alone,” she pleaded.
When contacted, resident pastor of Gateway Church, Pastor Emeka Ojoko, said his church bought the said piece of land from Aluu community in Ikwerre Local Government Area, also in Rivers State in 2009 and that the IGP monitoring unit arrested Pastor Charles Oghu when he tried to stop ongoing work on the land.
He said, “Matthew Agare met him inside that bush and told him, Pastor, please don’t fight this people. This portion of land belongs to a church and he went ahead. That was in 2016 and we bought the land in 2009.”
But his explanations contradict the owners of the land who insisted that Pastor Charles Oghu is the rightful owner of the said parcel of land.
Hon Godwin Wobo, head of the Wobo family in Rumuosi family in Obio/Akpor LGA told our correspondent that, “the site of that particular portion of land belongs to Pastor Charles because he bought it. So, anybody who tries to go into any negotiation or transaction in respect of that particular place is at his own risk because Pastor Charles has bought that land directly from the rightful owners. You can come to Rumuosi and ask anyone from Rumuosi whether we share any boundary with Aluu. We share boundary with Rumuekini.”
Similarly, Mr Benedict Amadi, a representative of the Wosu family in Rumuekini confirmed, adding, “We’ve been farming on that land and there was not any encroachment; there have been no problem. Just of recent, we started hearing all these stories. So, the property belongs to Rumuekini community and where Pastor Charles bought belongs to my family. In terms of that portion of land, it belongs to Pastor Charles.”
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that when the Gateway Church approached the family to buy the said portion of land, they were told pointedly they’ve sold the land to Pastor Charles and that they should approach him instead.
We further gathered that the Wosu family wrote the church advising them to refrain from the land and from dealing with impostors in respect of the said portion of land.
However, when Pastor Charles rebuffed their approach because he had reportedly sold some portions to his clients, the church allegedly contacted one Obed Wosu, a member of the Wosu family and also allegedly “empowered him with about four million Naira, for the acquisition of the said land.” It’s the said land speculator that is cooking up stories of a non-existing boundary dispute between the Rumuekini and Aluu communities, sources claimed.
Pastor Charles’ lawyer who refused names in print further informed our correspondent that they did take a caveat emptor on the said piece of land which was conspicuously displayed on the land. Yet, the church went in and destroyed properties of his client on the land.
Our correspondent could not get through to the commander in charge of the IGP monitoring unit nor the state Police command spokesman, DSP Nnamdi Omoni as at the time of filing this report.
