Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has criticized St Andrews Anglican Church, Ekpoma for allegedly trespassing on government land by erecting a church building and a high wall to fence off the Ukpughele Primary School in the community.
Oshiomhole during a meeting with the Archbishop of Bendel Province, Anglican Communion, Revd. Friday Imaekhai and other church leaders, said the church was not in conflict with the state government but with pupils of the school who were also children of the church parishioners.
The governor, who was at the school to inspect the perimeter fence which had been pulled down by officials of the state Ministry of Lands, Survey, Housing and Urban Development said, the issue at stake was whether the land belonged to the school or the state government.
He said: “The church operates on the basis of rules and regulations and I think the Anglican Church is an organized church, governed by rules and procedures. Nobody can just go and set up an Anglican Church without permission from appropriate authority.”
“By the same logic, Edo State is governed by law, and there is a government; a government that is accountable, that is the trustee of the people including the Christians and the children.”
He dismissed the argument by Imaekhai that the school belonged to the church and that the church property were destroyed by the school children. He reminded him that government had in the 70s taken over mission schools and that the said land on which the church erected a new building and a perimeter fence was government land.