No matter how good a Church leader is, church splits are always inevitable, and as difficult as it is for pastors to live with the unimaginable agony of a break, there are likely to be casualties. Emotions are going to fly high; people will be hurt; and, of course, the crusaders will look for allies. The “fall out” of such an event would leave deep fears in the hearts of believers. Partnerships are also dissolved when two groups go their separate ways, each feeling vindicated by their actions. In the hope that pastors will recognize the causes of destructive divisions in our churches and how they will be able to lead them away, considering the many painful divisions that exist in our churches, I feel compelled to write about the most divisive church breakaway incidents in Nigeria.
Five Most Controversial Church Breakaway Sagas in Nigeria
1. Dr. Mike Okonkwo of the Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM)
Dr. Mike Okonkwo
One of Apostle Samuel Egbo’s most cherished spiritual sons of the United Church of Christ was Dr. Mike Okonkwo. He had left his bank job to respond to the call of God and when it was time to send him from the headquarters of the Enugu Church, he was the obvious choice for the Lagos Akoka Branch of the United Church of Christ. He went to Lagos with a great deal of zeal, and the Lord used him extensively to expand the ministry. Between 1976 and 1980, the Lagos branch was established by leaps and bounds. When the then evangelist Mike Okonkwo was relocated by the Headquarters to Aba, trouble began. There was a rigid opposition from a section of the church loyal to him, and they declared independence from the headquarters, refusing to have any ties with the headquarters. When the Lagos branch section loyal to the headquarters started to have problems with the Pro Okonkwo faction, things turned wrong. This has culminated after reported incidences of violence in many criminal trials.
At one point, the police invited Apostle Egbo, the general supervisor of the ministry, to Lagos for questioning. Apostle Egbo handed the bunch of keys to the church building that had been possessed by the section loyal to the headquarters back to the police to send Bishop Mike Okonkwo to quench the dissonance and avoid further degeneration of the matter. Subsequently, in 1981, the Pro Okonkwo community of the branch became The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM). Apostle Egbo says in his autobiography, “My shock came when my son, Mike, denied ever knowing me or having any relationship with me.” I realized then that the devil was behind it all. Later on, before the Holy Spirit intervened, this case went to court and carried on forever. Ever since I have forgiven Bishop Mike. In 1995, he briefed a church synod, and in 1995, we spoke together at a rally in Lagos. The church denied the court’s case, and left the church building and property of Bishop Mike and his church free of charge.
The latest G.O of UCC (second from left) and Dr. Mike Okonkwo, photo by Bishop Ezenna Egbo.
The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) has since spread to over 180 branches in Nigeria and 10 countries all over the world.
2.Bishop Dr.George Adjeman(Winners Chapel Ghana)
Bishop George Adjeman
Bishop Adjeman, a Ghanaian, was Bishop David Oyedepo’s protégé, who served in the ministry for several years and was ordained a bishop and then moved to the Winners’ Chapel of Ghana. Before he was redeployed, there were already 14 branches spread across Ghana. However, when government officials in Ghana called for Churches to be registered as companies, removing the names of all Nigerian trustees and taking over the assets of its employees, Bishop Adjeman outfoxed winners chapel going on to re-register the church under a new name.
As Oyedepo got wind of his plot, he was transferred to Ibadan, which he refused and instead declared the Ghana branch’s independence from the main church. After a series of meetings brokered by the Ghanaian Pentecostal Council, the crisis degenerated and no settlement was reached, resulting in a legal battle that lasted 14 years within the Ghanaian judicial system.
Efforts were made to settle this dispute whilst the court proceedings were on, and Adjeman, along with the church mission house and a car, made a petition to be paid $50,000 as severance. Bishop Oyedepo has been reported to have agreed to accept $100,000, but without a car and a house. With Adjeman, this did not go over well and gradually the church spilled over in the wake of the crisis of possession. All of the properties had the Adjeman Faction, while the Oyedepo Faction protected another space nearby.
Bishop David Oyedepo
In Ghana, there are now more than 200 churches in the Oyedepo faction (now known as Winners Chapel Intl, Ghana) that started again in the crisis of 2004.
3) Pastor Everest Ofoegbu of Christ Chosen Generation Revival Ministry.
Pastor Everest Ofoegbu
Under Pastor Lazarus Mouka of the Charismatic Church of the Lord Chosen, Pastor Everest Ofoegbu once served. But in 2006, Pastor Eze Nnamdi Ofoegbu wrote a police petition against Pastor Lazarus Muoka, General Supervisor of the Selected Ministry of the Lord’s Charismatic Revival, asking that the sum of N317 million from him be what he expended in the ministry from the beginning to the moment they parted their paths. He said it was an expense, based on an agreement that was unwritten between them.
According to him, “A man invests in the expectation of reaping; I have been investing in this project since 2004.” From that period until I quit, I invested over N300 m. Part of the scheme in the area of land where the church is now and the fleet of luxurious buses you see there. The investment also includes the planting of churches in Dubai, Abidjan, Ikoyi, Ibadan, and the United Arab Emirates. This are in comparison to the sequence of crusades that we have been carrying out throughout the nation and beyond.
Pastor Lazarus Mouka
The couple had accusations and counter-claims and they were clients of the police on many occasions. The legal battle sparked by the incident went as far as the Appeal Court and Moukas’s opponents suggested that the nemesis may have kidnapped him because it was the same blackmail he used when he was a minister of the Watchman Catholic Charismatic branch and left with other church members to form the Lord Chosen Church. However, after their disagreements have been overcome by Mouka and Pastor Nnamdi Ofoegbu, he is now the Supreme Ruler of Umudiawa in Umuahaia North LGA of Abia State, the National Chairman of Christian Royal Fathers of Nigeria, and the Executive Chairman of Christian Traditional Rulers of Niger Delta State of Abia State, apart from the role of Ofoegbu as General Overseer of Christ Chosen Generation Revival Ministry
4. Pastors Sam And Victor Adeyemi
Pastor Sam Adeyemi
Senior Pastor Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Ministries, Ikeja, Lagos, and his immediate younger brother, Pastor Victor Adeyemi, General Overseer of the Global Harvest Church, are two of the trusted lieutenants of Reverend George Adegboye in Ilorin Kwara State of Rhema Chapel Foreign Churches. Rev. Adegboye made Rev. Sam Adeyemi the Pastoral Care Head before he later made him Minister in Charge, and later posted him to Lagos. Victor was posted to the Ibadan branch of the church at the same time.
Rev. Victor Adeyemi
In 1995, the two left the branches of Lagos and Ibadan, respectively, at the same time, taking large amounts of their respective congregations with them. The fact that they left at the same time left two divisions with a large gap, creating at the time a great deal of frustration and tantrums.
“According to Rev. George Adegboye of Rhema Chapel, when they left, it was a big thing,” but we have grown since then. It was an experience that was harrowing enough. It was harrowing and you just have the hypothesis that they’re never going to leave, that they’re sons at home, and that if they leave, they’re going to leave in different ways. Yet stuff happened the way they did, and it was a harrowing experience for me then. But we went back to Heaven when we grew up, and we asked him if I had done anything wrong. It was just that we were not handling the escape that we must have handled. And the cause was that some other people were involved, and they took advantage of the situation and used it for their own benefit.
Rev. George Adegboye
While Sam Adeyemi, Daystar Christian Centre, with more than 25,000 members, sits on top of a hectare of land on Ikosi Lane, Lagos, both sides have settled today , making it one of the most attended churches on Sundays in Lagos State. Ibadan ‘s Worldwide Harvest Church reportedly has more than 10,000 members from the headquarters of Pastor Victor Adeyemi Ibadan.
The Adeyemi’s at a wedding of Rev. Adegboye’s Son
5. Pastor Lawrence Adetunji (Mountain Of Fire)
Pastor Lawrence Adetunji
In 2017, after a dispute with the General Boss, Pastor Lawrence Adetunjii, the then Resident Pastor in charge of Mountain of Fire Ministries, Bowie, Maryland, USA, relocated and renamed the Church as Christ the Truth Ministries.
He was alleged to have sent an email to MFM’s GO (Dr Olukoya) before that saying that it was time for him to move on after serving him and handling the church (MFM Bowie) for the past 18 years. After sending the email to the General Overseer, he later updated the MFM church billboard to’ CHRIST THE TRUTH MINISTRIES’ and also instructed the police to control the church in the case of any disruption.
Not only did he split away from the ministry, he then hijacked, relocated and renamed the church properties in the name of his Own Church, claiming that the building at 5503 & 5506, Church Road Bowie, Maryland was bought solely with donations from citizens. According to him and his loyalist, there was no direct financial contribution from the MFM parent church in Lagos to the purchase of the land, and the proceeds should belong to those who were running the church
MFM, Lagos and MFMM Nevada, at the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County in Maryland, USA, seek a declaratory judgment and damages against Pastor Adetunji at the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County in Maryland, USA, charging that the purchase of the property housing the church was made only by the contributions of MFM members in Bowie.
Dr. Daniel Olukoya
However, the American court later ruled in favour of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) in 2018 and ordered the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) branch to be returned directly to its rightful owners.
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