A school in the commercial city of Onitsha owned by the Anambra State Government, South-East Nigeria, has become the bone of contention between the Anglican and Catholic churches in the area.

Lafiagi Primary School is located between St. Faith Anglican Church and St.Michael’s Catholic, both in Fegge in Onitsha South Local Government Area and was used by both churches for their activities before the onset of trouble.

News Express learnt that trouble started during last Sunday’s worship as youths of both churches tried to prevent each other from making use of the school field.

The Parish Priest of St Faith’s Anglican Church, Rev. Canon Obiora Uzochukwu, who spoke to reporters, revealed that there had been a lingering crisis over the ownership of the land where the school is built.

He said that trouble started when the state government gave the Anglican Church the space in the school to be conducting its church service, saying that the presence of the Anglican Church did not go down well with the Catholic Church.

Said Canon Uzochukwu: “The Anglican Communion has been worshiping at the primary school for more than 40 years and we view the recent attack by the Catholics as a way of playing scripts written by unknown hands who want to intimidate us.

“They (Catholics) came to the open space where we normally have our weekly church activities, but the one that broke the camel’s back was the incident where members of the MOD of the Catholic Church swooped on our members and destroyed two canopies set for Sunday service.”

The Anglican parish priest lamented that the Catholic Church has refused to obey a court injunction to both parties to return to status quo which was that the Anglican Communion should continue to have its service in the field since it does not belong to the Catholic Church alone.

He also noted that sometime ago, some people were seen taking measurement at the primary school, adding that on enquiry, they claimed that Anambra State Urban Development Board (ASUDEB) had contracted them to execute an MDG project in the area. Canon Uzochukwu noted that the same ASUDEB had earlier given the Anglican Church the approval to construct a church at the said school before it was opposed by some individuals.

Telling the story from the catholic angle, the Parish Priest of St. Michael Catholic Church, Rev. Fr. Celestine Aniofor, said: “Lafiaji Primary School belongs to the state government. What happened was that the members of MOD in the church got approval from the headmistress of the school to do their camping programme in the school from Friday to Sunday. When they came to report to me that members of the Anglican Church had used canopies to block the field where they were doing parade, I quickly pleaded with them to give peace a chance.

“The Anglican Communion has been dragging the school, which is a state government school and ASUDEB had earlier barred any church from having service there. So when the MOD men came, the Anglican people came to make trouble and went as far as inviting the soldiers to arrest the MOD commander and it took us several efforts to get him on bail.

“On Sunday again, they came with the police. We see this as purely madness because nobody is dragging anything with them.”

•Photo shows activities on-going in the disputed school premises.

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