Domino Mbang, a clergyman who was fired as area pastor of Living Faith Church (aka Winners’ Chapel) in Palm Street Assembly, Atakpa, Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State, has filed a lawsuit against the church for alleged unlawful dismissal.
Mbang sued the church in Calabar’s National Industrial Court, seeking N350 million in damages.
The cleric, who claims to be a graduate of mathematics and statistics from the University of Calabar, claims to have faced persecution from members of the church.
The applicant said he went to court to seek redress and to let the church’s authorities know how he was treated in suit No: NICN/CA/25/2022 between Mbang as claimant and the presiding bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide Incorporated, Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor Adebisi Aboluwade, and two other defendants.
He said, “I was a member of the church for over a decade before training to become a pastor. At least, I have spent more than two decades in the ministry, that alone makes me a son to our general overseer, Bishop David Oyedepo.”
Mbang, who claimed to be an area pastor with 16 branches of the church in Calabar South under his auspices, stated that he was unlawfully sacked by a cabal made up of Pastor Tamunotoye Chukunda and the state pastor Adeolu Adewumi.
“According to the church Operational Mandate, before a pastor is sacked, he would first be queried with a letter and made to appear before a disciplinary committee to answer pertinent questions and thereafter be issued with three warnings before he can be issued a termination of appointment letter. In my case, nothing of such happened.
“Apart from the query that was issued, what followed immediately was a sacked letter without availing me the opportunity to appear before any disciplinary panel. The cabals headed by Pastor Adeolu and Pastor Chukunda connived and kicked out without following due process.
“The Mandate Book serves like a constitution of the organization, unfortunately it was never followed, probably because they didn’t like my face.
“Both of them cannot claim to be more of Bishop Oyedepo’s God sons than myself, we are all his children in the lord. No query letter was served to me. The only letter given to me by the cabals was a sacked letter and for a year now my salary has been stopped.
“As I speak to you, I can’t even pay my children school fees nor pay my rent, or afford food, clothing and medicine for my kids,” Mbang lamented.
However, an official of the church denied all the allegations.
“A query was served to him because of the way he was misbehaving. We are a responsible organisation, we couldn’t have sacked a man of God in the manner which he claimed,” the official told Leadership newspaper.
The case will be heard on October 26.