By Our Correspondent<\/p>\n
Tension as crisis rocking the Chapel of Redemption at the University of Calabar, Cross River State, took a fresh turn on Sunday as worshippers were again prevented from entering the church premises for their regular service.<\/p>\n
The worshippers were reportedly stopped by armed university security personnel, who allegedly said they were acting on directives from the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Offiong Effanga Offiong.<\/p>\n
The latest development came despite an interim order of the Federal High Court restraining the university authorities from interfering with the activities of the chapel or preventing access to its premises.<\/p>\n
The court had reportedly granted the order on August 4 and sustained it on August 20, pending the determination of the substantive matter.<\/p>\n
The case was subsequently adjourned until September 2 for further proceedings on the application before the court.<\/p>\n
Security personnel stationed around the chapel allegedly turned back members who arrived for Sunday worship and ordered them to leave the university premises.<\/p>\n
Faced with the restriction, the worshippers relocated to a nearby street, where they conducted their service.<\/p>\n
The incident was said to be similar to what occurred on August 16, when members of the chapel were also denied entry and subsequently held an open-air service near the university fire service park.<\/p>\n
The dispute followed earlier actions by the Vice-Chancellor, including the removal of the chapel\u2019s chaplain, Rev. Joseph Ushie, and the appointment of Rev. Israel Eyo as interim chaplain.<\/p>\n
Ushie was also reportedly evicted from his university quarters, while Prof. Essien Oku, chairman of the church council, was suspended and the council dissolved.<\/p>\n
A caretaker committee was thereafter appointed to oversee the affairs of the chapel, a development that triggered the legal action now pending before the Federal High Court.<\/p>\n
Counsel to Ushie, Mba Ukweni, SAN, had argued that the Vice-Chancellor lacked the powers under the University of Calabar Act to administer or take control of the affairs of the church.<\/p>\n
During Sunday\u2019s incident, the Deputy Chief Security Officer of the university, Mr. Monday Johnson, was quoted as saying that his job could be at risk if the worshippers refused to comply with the directive to leave.<\/p>\n
The worshippers eventually moved out of the campus and continued their service on a nearby street.<\/p>\n
While the service was ongoing, university authorities allegedly reported to the Cross River Police Command that the worshippers had barricaded the entrance to the institution.<\/p>\n
Deputy Commissioner of Police Godwin Etim reportedly arrived at the scene with police personnel but, after assessing the situation, found that the alleged blockade had not occurred and subsequently left the area.<\/p>\n
Reacting, the Secretary of the church council, Mr. Imo Nse, said members expected the subsisting court order to safeguard their right to worship while the matter remained before the court.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cWe remain committed to obeying the law. Our only demand is freedom to worship while this matter remains before the court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent Tension as crisis rocking the Chapel of Redemption at the University of Calabar, Cross River State, took a fresh turn on Sunday as worshippers were again prevented from entering the church premises for their regular service. The worshippers were reportedly stopped by armed university security personnel, who allegedly said they were acting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17046,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043\/revisions\/17046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}