By Olusegun Olanrewaju
The Cross River State wing of the Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel), is enmeshed in a crisis as some pastors and officials of the church in the state capital, Calabar, have distanced themselves from a petition sacking one of its pastors.
The church also now appears to be in a furnace over a messy court case about the propriety of some weighty-sounding allegations against one of its clergy, now before the National Industrial Court (NIC), over ‘wrongful termination’ of employment, among other alleged infringements.
Trouble started on November 18, 2021, when the church hierarchy dismissed one of its pastors, Dominion Esang, based on an 11-point petition said to have been written by some pastors and officials of the church.
The petitioners were Timothy Ekpenyong, Uwem Sampson Ezekiel, Mrs. Confidence Okokon, Daniel Obong, and Imelda Osim.
They alleged that Esang, as a pastor, indulged in “Fornication and cohabiting with different women; deceiving the church at resumption; living with a woman he was not married to, and cohabiting with other women and impregnating one last year.”
The petitioners also accused the pastor of forcefully changing the name, Fidelis Esang Mbang, to Dominion Winner Esang, “due to criminal record associated with the name, and being wanted for financial fraud; leaving former Church (Assembly of God Church) under suspension due to financial fraud; forgery of a fake marriage certificate for successful enlistment into full-time ministry”, among others.”
However, the five officials of the church, in a letter dated May 23, 2023, to Pastor Esang, have disassociated themselves from the petition and allegations against the pastor.
Responding to the allegations, Pastor Esang said, “Having listened to all of the allegations against me, permit me to state the following: that from the number one allegation to the 10th, they are all baseless, satanic lies that cannot be proven with fact and do not represent me in any way as I did not commit any of such offence; neither will I ever do such. I hereby debunk all of these allegations in totality.”
Esang accordingly instituted a suit through his counsel, Ozinko Ozinko, dragging the church, its founder, Bishop David Oyedepo, and four others to the National Industrial Court sitting in Calabar rejecting his sack and seeking a declaration of court that, “the unlawful act of dismissal; termination of the contract of employment of the claimant without fair hearing and regards to the due process of law, is unlawful and amounts to a clear violation of the labour law in that regards entitling the claimant to damages.”
The counsel is, therefore, requesting “General damages of N350m only for unlawful dismissal and defamation of character, and an order of court declaring their actions of terminating the claimant’s employment as null, void and of no effect whatsoever.
When the matter came up on July 19 before Justice Sanusi Kado it was adjourned to October 31 for hearing; and when the matter earlier came up on May 6, 2023, the counsel to the church and others, Dr Idaka Idaka, pleaded with the court to grant them time to amend their processes.
They said what was granted in the amended processes and their counterclaim was that they were representing Oyedepo and others, asking that N3 million should be paid to them as damages.
