State Government attempt to retake mission school sparks controversy

An attempt by the Enugu State Government to retrieve back schools belonging to the Anglican Communion which it returned to it back in 2010 has sparked off a row between the church and government of the state.

 The Church has accused the government of “unfairness”, also demanded the immediate sack of State Commissioner of education, Dr Simeon Ortuanya, accusing him of creating confusion using his office.

 Addressing reporters in Enugu on Monday, ArchBishop of the Enugu Province, His Grace, Amos Madu, said the state government had written to it classifying several schools returned to it in 2010 as being “handed over wrongfully” and as such had refused to gazette them as done to the schools returned to the Roman Catholic church in the state.

  Flanked by eight bishops of the Province, Madu said that the state government in a letter signed by Ortuanaya had declared that 54 out of the 146 primary schools returned to it and 10 out of 16 secondary schools returned to it as “wrong”, stressing that these include schools located on the church compound.

 The letter it said listed the affected schools as belonging to communities and not Anglican church.

 But Ortuanya said the state government had set up a committee to look at the entire thing with a view to reviewing them, adding that it was not peculiar to a particular church.

 Madu however stated that the schools were handed over to the church under the present administration of Sullivan Chime in 2010 through a letter signed by the former commissioner of education Dr Festus Uzor.

 “We have protested this matter to the present commissioner and written to the state governor but till now, nothing has been said. We have been pushed to the wall and that is why we want the world to hear our voice.

 These schools are owned by the CMS from history and acquired by the military illegally.

 Now when the 1999 constitution approved that they be returned to their original owners, we applied and got them handed over to us but even when government gazetted those it returned to the catholic church, it has refused to gazette our own.

 We cannot take this and therefore ask the government to retrace her step in the interest of peace and justice.

 We are bonafide owners of these schools and Enugu state government cannot lay claims to certain issues apparently to favour some interests”, he added.

 The church insisted that it had spent so much in rehabilitating the schools since they were returned, alleging that even when government had “secretly done some work on schools it returned to catholic church, it has refused to do same for others inherited by other churches”.

 The church which alleged marginalization in the allocation of buses for schools under it by the state government, urged government to cancel the request to retrieve the schools from it.

 The church also called on Governor Chime to take notice of how the governments in the SouthEast have handled their return of mission schools so as not to spark off religious crisis in the state, stressing that as bonafide members of the state, it would not allow her right to be trampled upon.