The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, has deposed Pastor Landry Tchana, the elected leader of the Christian denomination, True Church of God of Cameroon, recognizing Pastor Abate Francois.
In a ministerial order of May 24 that has further intensified the Church’s leadership dispute, Atanga Nji told Governors and Senior Divisional Officer to arrest anyone posing as the Church’s leader without the mandate of Abate Francois.
However, Pastor Abate is not popular among his fellow believers and is accused of conniving with the administration to usurp power.
The Minister is weighing in following a leadership crisis that broke out in the church earlier this year.
The True Church of God of Cameroon, founded by Rev. Apostle Toukea Nestor, has been mired in turmoil since Apostle Nestor’s death in 2020.
Prior to his passing, Apostle Nestor established a statute outlining the procedure for selecting the church’s next leader.
According to this statute, Pastor Landry Tchana Tchamy was unanimously chosen as the church’s president during an Extraordinary General Assembly held in Ngousso in 2021.
The assembly was chaired by Pastor Abate Francois, who officially installed Landry Tchana in the presence of representatives from the church’s 600 assemblies across Cameroon.
However, two months after this installation, Pastor Abate Francois, who did not meet the criteria stipulated by the church’s founding statute, unilaterally drafted a new statute that favored his own leadership.
This act sowed seeds of division within the church. Pastor Abate proclaimed himself the leader and relocated the church headquarters from Ngousso to Ayos.
Leveraging on his connections in the Ministry of Territorial Administration and in the judiciary, he has gained favor from law enforcement officers who have often brutalized and arrested those belonging to the camp of Pastor Landry, the elected leader of the True Church of God.
Pastor Landry has been arrested and jailed several times for not renouncing his position as leader of the church.
Last Saturday, Christians in Bafousam who belong to the camp of Pastor Landry went praying, and some that belong to Abate’s camp came and attacked them.
The attack, as MMI reported, was bloody. Minister Atanga Nji, after several interferences, is at it again.
“I have the honor to inform you that Reverend Pastor Abate Ndengue François is the President of the Executive Office of the True Church of God of Cameroon,” the Minister wrote.
“As such, he is the corporate representative of the said church throughout the national territory and beyond. In any case, you would like to prohibit any illegal demonstration, requested or organized at the VEDC by Mr. Tchana Tchamy Dantse Landry or any other individual not mandated by Pastor Abate Ndengue Françols; if necessary, have the troublemakers arrested.”
Despite Atanga Nji’s decisive stance, the leadership dispute is still pending in court, leaving the final resolution of the church’s governance in legal limbo.
