By Sunny A. Ijomah
The Anambra State government has denied allegations of collaborating with the Catholic Church to confiscate any landed property from the Anglican Church in Onitsha or elsewhere in the State.
The government, through the Chief of Staff to the governor, Mr. Primus Odili, said there is nothing concerning the Catholic and the Anglican Churches in the land at Crowther Memorial Primary School, Onitsha, saying the land belongs to the Anambra State Government.
Recall that clergy and worshippers of the Anglican Diocese on the Niger, Onitsha, Anambra State, have accused Governor Willie Obiano of collaborating with the Catholic Church to forcefully acquire their land.
The Church accused Obiano of aiding his church to acquire their land at St Simon’s Bishop Crowther Memorial Church behind the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity Onitsha and of building a high wall round the school with the aim of ceding it to the Catholic Church.
Worshippers were barred from entering the church on Sunday but yesterday, about 200 priests, 5,000 worshippers and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), defied security presence and entered the St. Simeon’s Bishop Crowther Memorial Church to celebrate Nigeria at 58.
The Catholic Church, through the Director of Social Communication Rev. Fr. Pius Ukor and Chief Press Secretary to Archbishop Valerian Okeke, Rev. Fr. Benjamin Ogbunuko, said: “The Catholic Church has no hand in the land dispute between the government and the Anglican Church.”