Anglican priests in Enugu State on Thursday blocked the entry gates of eight primary and secondary schools, preventing academic activities.
The schools are located within an environment known as Women Training Centre. They include Urban Anglican Girls Secondary School, Metropolitan Anglican Secondary School and City Anglican Secondary School, as well as five primary schools.
The clerics were protesting an alleged directive to authorities of the schools by the state Ministry of Education that they should cease dealing with the Anglican Church on the ground that government had repossessed mission schools.
The priests alleged that the government had started allocating land on the premises of the schools to private developers, an action they considered as “punitive and unfair.”
The priets were dressed in black and white aprons and led by their Chairman, Ven. Moses Ifeanyieze.
They arrived at the WTC Road as early as 6.30am and blocked the entrances to the compound.
They bore placards that read, “Who can battle with the Lord, we say nobody; Leave us alone and give peace a chance; Govt should not be partisan; Take your schools away and leave our land premises; and Keep off the church,” among others.
Students and teachers, who had reported to school, joined the clergymen in the protest.
For several hours, vehicular movement on the road was brought to a halt as the clerics marched round in protest over “Enugu government’s selective injustice and unfair treatment to the Anglican church.”
Ifeanyieze stated that the church had gone to court when it discovered the schools which were returned to it had not been gazette by government as done to others belonging to the Catholic Church.
He also added that the court had given an injunction restraining government from repossessing the schools.
He said, “We have invested resources renovating and restructuring the schools belonging to us. Now, the government has started unlawfully allocating the land in the school to private developers.
“We see this as an attempt to repossess the school which is in the process of handover. They came up with a circular that it is wrongfully handed over to us, that was why we went to court, and the court gave an injunction restraining them.”
He said, “That injunction is still in place, but the Post-Primary School Management Board released a letter that they have repossessed some of our schools and that the school authorities should stop dealing with us.
“We have a very simple question to ask and that is, are Anglicans second citizens in Enugu State? We should be treated equally with other religion bodies in the state.
“Government cannot wake up and begin a sectional attempt to alienate us. This is totally unacceptable.
However, the state government, in a statement by the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uchechukwu Okoro, said the schools were handed over to the church in error.
Okoro said the error was discovered in the report of a committee set up by government to investigate complaints arising from the handover of the schools.
He said, “The Anglican, Catholic and Methodist churches were represented in the committee. The committee finished its work and submitted its findings to the government, listing all the schools handed over in error to other owners. The committee’s findings were based on verifiable records contained in the archives of the government.
“Following these reports, the government directed the ministry of education to repossess the affected schools and inform their new owners accordingly.
“Consequently, schools were recovered from the Catholic and Methodist churches. Schools recovered from Catholic church include Special Science School, Ihe-Awgu council; Awgu Community Secondary School, Nenwe; and Ezeagu Secondary School, Isiugwu Umana.
“Schools recovered from the Methodist Church include Community Secondary School, Obeagu Awkunanaw and Comprehensive Secondary School, Akpasha.”
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