Leadership Fight Goes Bloody at the True Church of God

 From Minister Atanga Nji’s interferences, court cases, and police brutality to night attacks, the True Church of God is on the news again. 

Some thugs stormed the True Church of God in Banengo 1, in Baffousam last Friday night at about 11 p.m.

They attacked Christians with knives and other dangerous weapons. This happened while night prayers were ongoing.

Videos shared with MMI depicted a scene where a man called Konychou Sylvano, a watchman, and another called Foka Herve stormed the church and started beating Christians, some elderly mothers, and children.

They claimed that Talla Victor, a pastor working under the direction of Pastor Abate Francios and attempting to unseat Pastor Landry Tchana Tchamy, the church’s legitimately elected leader, sent them.

Videos from last Friday night show Christians with sustained bruises and blood oozing out of another’s head.

“The situation at True Church of God is becoming worse,” a Christian told MMI via text message.

“This Pastor Abate is walking from town to town to fight with Christians,” he added.

This is not the first time some Christians in this church have been beaten and vandalised since the crisis started in the church earlier this year.

On March 16, police stormed the assembly in Ngoussou in Yaounde, beat up some Christians, and arrested 30 others. They were later released. Their elected leader has been jailed several times.

 
The Genesis of the Crisis in the Church
 
The crisis in the church erupted following the death of its founder, Rev. Apostle Toukea Nestor, in 2020. Before his death, he had put up a statute on how the next leader of the church was going to be selected. 

Through that statute, Pastor Landry Tchana Tchamy was chosen by acclamation during the church Extraordinary General Assembly at Ngousso in 2021.

The person who chaired the assembly that saw Landry Tchana chosen as VEDC’s president was Pastor Abate Francois. He went as far as installing Landry in the presence of Christians from the different 600 assemblies all over Cameroon that came for the Assembly in Yaounde.

Two months after the installation of Landry Tchana, Pastor Abate Abate Francois, who never met any criteria regarding the statute kept by the church’s founder, wrote another statute that could favour him. That creates division within the church.

That is when Christians realised that Abate, while forwarding the decision of the 2021 GA to MINAT, removed Pastor Landry Tchana’s name and put his instead.
Abate then planned a GA in Ayos that was going to see him chosen as the leader of the church.

Christians complained of the illegal activities of Pastor Abate Francois, which were bringing chaos to VEDC.

On June 9, 2023, the Divisional Officer of Ayos, Moloka Alain Ekwe, signed a communiqué in which he banned the planned GA by Abate Francios.

Meanwhile, on June 19, 2023, Minister Paul Atanga Nji, supposedly Abate’s friend, signed another communique that went contrary to that of the D.O, recognisingnizing Pastor Abate as the leader of the true church of God of Cameroon.

According to Pastor Abate, the founder of the church was a Bamelike, and it was now the turn of a person from the center region to oversee the church.

Christians in Landry’s camp believe that MINAT Boss can’t hear their claim because Pastor Abate has people in the ministry who decamped to his site.

Mimi Mefo Info