Nigerian United Methodists Accused of Spying for Emailing Photos from Police Station

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UPDATED June 24, 4:54 p.m.

This is a developing story and will be updated as events occur.

Three United Methodist pastors and a layman who have been embroiled in a conflict with the bishop of Nigeria have run afoul of state police for emailing photographs of their June 9 detention to the Council of Bishops, international supporters and U.S. church media.

According to multiple sources, the Revs. Ande I. Emmanuel and Ignatius Jesse, Pastor Ahmed A. Ahmed and layman Nicodemus Heman were arrested June 22 by Nigerian state police in Jalingo, Taraba State. They are charged with violating Nigeria’s official secrets act for photographing the outside of buildings at the Jalingo police station, along with pictures of themselves awaiting interrogation on June 9.

In an email received late June 24, Rev. Emmanuel told Insight that United Methodists held two days of demonstrations in Jalingo protesting the imprisonment of the pastors and Mr. Heman after they were initially denied bail June 22.

“Today after so much pressure on the judge and heavy peaceful protest by United Methodists in Jalingo yesterday and today we were granted bail and the matter adjourned for further hearing July 19th, 2021,” Rev. Emmanuel said in his email.

Rev. Emmanuel contended in his email that Bishop John Wesley Yohanna, through his administrative assistants in the Southern Nigeria and Northeast Nigeria conferences, forwarded to police the email containing the photographs used as evidence in three charges: criminal conspiracy, inciting disturbance, and leaking police secrets to a “foreign body,” namely the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

Rev. Emmanuel alleged that the charges against him and his companions, many of whom participate in the ad hoc advocacy group Africa Voice of Unity, are retaliation for having lodged a church complaint of three chargeable offenses against Bishop Yohanna two months ago. The complaint sent to Bishop Benjamin Boni of Côte d'Ivoire, president of the West Africa College of Bishops, charges Bishop Yohanna with disobedience to the order and discipline of the church, fiscal malfeasance (financial misappropriation), and interfering with another’s ministry through clergy harassment and intimidation.

“These complaints were filed almost two months ago but we are yet to get updates on the status of these complaints,” Rev. Emmanuel stated. “Bishop Yohanna forwarded to the police the formal complaint I filed against him as evidence of leaking police secrets to [a] foreign body. He’s referring to the West Africa College of Bishops and the Council of Bishops as foreign bodies, and he’s using the resources of The United Methodist Church to jail United Methodist pastors.”

United Methodist Insight emailed a link to this updated article to Rev. Baziel Y. Yayuba, Southern Nigeria Conference assistant to Bishop Yohanna inviting a response. This story will be updated if Bishop Yohanna responds.

Called for interrogation June 9

The Nigeria UMC feud escalated on June 9 when Nigerian police called the group, which originally numbered 13 United Methodists in total, to respond to a complaint letter sent by the Revs. Baziel Y. Yayuba and Yunusa Z. Usman. Rev. Yayuba is Southern Nigeria Conference administrative assistant to Bishop Yohanna, and Rev. Usman is Northeast Nigeria Conference administrative assistant to the bishop (see United Methodist Insight, June 18). The two clergymen complained to Nigerian police that Rev. Emmanuel and his companions were undermining the peace of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria and promoting the practice of homosexuality. Revs. Yayuba and Usman said in the complaint that they feared for their lives.

The allegation of promoting homosexual practice, which is illegal in Nigeria, apparently stems from the participation of Rev. Emmanuel and others in Africa Voice of Unity and the Christmas Covenant. Neither group promotes blanket LGBTQ acceptance in The United Methodist Church, but advocates that each region of the church be allowed to make its own decisions based on local culture and contexts. Thus, in the case of Nigeria, the United Methodist Church there would not be compelled to accept LGBTQ persons as clergy or perform same-sex marriages since homosexuality is illegal in the country.

Africa Voice of Unity is an ad hoc advocacy group opposed to division of The United Methodist Church by means of the independently negotiated Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation. The Protocol, which among other things proposes $25 million in church funds for the establishment of a “traditionalist” denomination, is being promoted by the Wesleyan Covenant Association, which opposes same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy. The WCA already has announced the creation of a traditionalist denomination which it calls the Global Methodist Church. Bishop Yohanna is among United Methodist bishops publicly supporting the new denomination.

Late last week, Bishop Yohanna sent a letter to Revs. Yayuba and Usman asking them to withdraw their police complaint so that the dispute with Rev. Emmanuel and others could be resolved through the United Methodist Church’s own mediation process. However, United Methodist Insight has been unable to locate any documentation or verification from the principals involved that the police complaint has been withdrawn.

Summoned by police

According to a confidential clergy source in Nigeria, Revs. Emmanuel and Ignatius, Pastor Ahmed and Mr. Heman were summoned to the Jalingo police station June 22 supposedly to discuss the complaint against them. Instead, said the source, the four were arrested on charges of violating Nigeria’s secrecy act.

An article by Chuwang Dungs of the Nigerian website The Eyewitness described the situation:

“A magistrate court in Jalingo Taraba State have remanded three clergies, one member of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria (UMCN) for spying on the premises of the Taraba state Police command and spreading the photos to foreign partners.

“In a brief hearing, at the Justice Mahmud  Mohammed National industrial/Magistrate court Jalingo, Magistrate Bartholome Vakkai Kaigama, said the accused Rev. Ande I Emmanuel, Rev. Ignatius Jesse, Pastor Ahmed A. Ahmed and Mr. Nicodemus Heman be remanded in the National Correctional Center, until Thursday 24th June 2021 to allow the court [to] study the case [and] to pass its  judgement.

“The Judge who refused to grant the accused bail, stated that the court would like to study the content of the case because of the sensitivity of the matter and the security concerns involved.

“The Taraba State Police Command Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr David Misal, in an interview told newsmen that the Clergymen were charged to court for secretly taking photographs of some sensitive location in the command headquarters which includes police, the Criminal Investigative Department (CID), the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) and other areas.

“He explain that ‘On the 03-06-2021 the police Commissioner received a letter of complain from one Rev. Yayuba B Yoila and Rev. Yunusa Z Usman of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria, indicating that some clergymen were engaged in destabilizing the existing peace in the church, so on the strength of the above, the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) sent an invitation letter to the clergymen for interrogation which they came, but on getting to the station they secretly took photographs of the Police headquarters gate, Criminal Investigative Department (CID), State Intelligence Bureau Office (SIB) and other sensitive location in the police command and attached same with a written complain letter to the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church, that the police have been paid by Bishop John Wesley Yohanna to harass and torture the invited clergymen.’”

Alleged secrecy violation explained

Mr. Misal said further:

“What they did was an offense, their act contravenes the Official Secret Act, which states that any person who for any purpose prejudicial to the security of Nigeria: and enters in the vicinity of a protected place or photograph a protected place commit an offense and is liable to punishment, that is why we took them to Court, so if the court feels they should be remanded in the National Correctional Center then that is the decision of the court and we have no control over the decision of the court.”

Mr. Misal also denied that Bishop Yohanna had any role in the investigation of the jailed men, according to The Eyewitness report.

“…. Mr. David Misal noted that Bishop Yohanna has not written any complain letter to the police command and as such cannot be linked to the case between the Taraba police command and the clergymen.

“'How can they accuse the Bishop for being responsible for the court case with the clergymen? I have not seen any letter that was signed by Bishop John Wesley Yohanna, the complains letter we received was brought by Rev. Yayuba B Yoila and Rev. Yunusa Z Usman, but if anybody still want to accuse the Bishop that is their own opinion, but the question I want to ask is it the same Bishop John Wesley Yohanna that ask the clergymen to take photographs of the police headquarters? Or is it the Bishop that asked them to send the photos outside the country? I am not aware of any Bishop sponsoring us, what we are doing is that we are investigating people who are revealing the secret of the Nigerian Police Taraba State Command,’ he said.”

Neither The Eyewitness website’s report nor any of the Nigerians contacted by United Methodist Insight said how the Nigerian police obtained copies of the emails containing photographs that were sent to the Council of Bishops, church supporters and church media. United Methodist Insight has received, but not published, photos of the Jalingo police station. Insight has published photos of the Yayuba and Usman complaint letter and of the June 9 police summonses received by several clergy.

Conflict exceeds church dispute

International supporters of the jailed group, including some African United Methodists, told Insight that they believe the dispute has gone beyond differences over whether the Protocol or the Christmas Covenant – or both – should guide the future of The United Methodist Church. Unlike the United States, where there is separation of church and state, Nigerian politics are intertwined with both religion and ethnic loyalties – a situation that Nigeria, a nation of some 200 million people sharply divided between Christians and Muslims, currently struggles to overcome. In particular Taraba State, where the United Methodist Church in Nigeria is based, has seen an ongoing wave of kidnappings and low-level violence between opposing social groups.

The most recent dispute between Bishop Yohanna and some Nigerian United Methodists goes back to at least September 2020. At that time, the Rev. Philip Micah Dopah of the Southern Nigeria Conference demanded that the bishop stop accusing the regional governor of fueling conflict in the UMC in Nigeria, according to an article on The Blueprint website. Rev. Dopah said then that the Nigeria UMC has been in crisis for some 15 years.

In October, the Taraba Truth & Fact newspaper reported that Rev. Dopah alleged that Bishop Yohanna had hired Nigerian police to intimidate and arrest pastors and church members in a conflict over a church property in Lagos. In several emails since the June 9 interrogation, Rev. Yayuba has strenuously denied that the bishop has engaged in any intimidation. Bishop Yohanna himself has not responded to multiple emails from Insight requesting clarification or comment on the complaints against him.

In a June 7 opinion article in The Guardian Nigeria News, the Rev. Cornelius A. Omonokhua reported that the Nigeria Inter-religious Council, which works to resolve tensions between Christians and Muslims, met May 19 with the theme “ethnic, religious and political profiling is avoidable” in response to the ongoing unrest in the country. Fr. Omonokhua, a Catholic priest who serves as executive secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council, wrote: “I believe in a united Nigeria because I do not believe that the problem of Nigeria is ethnicity, religion and democracy. … I believe that the problem of Nigeria is more of greed of the few that has put the majority into abject penury and hardship. … We must not allow greedy people and international politicians [to] fragment Nigeria with religion and ethnicity.”

Africa Voice of Unity, the advocacy group in which some of the jailed Nigerian pastors participate, also contends that international manipulation – specifically by United Methodists allied with the Wesleyan Covenant Association – is causing unrest within The United Methodist Church in Africa. Statements by Africa Voice of Unity supporters such as the Rev. Lloyd Nyarota of Zimbabwe and layman Albert Otshudi Longe of the Democratic Republic of Congo have alleged that the WCA’s lobbying efforts among Africans amounts to neocolonialism, an attempt to confuse African United Methodists and rob them of self-determination about a potential UMC schism.

While the United Methodist Church's path toward schism may be only tangentially related to the June 22 arrests of three pastors and a layman, the church's internal battles appear to be another layer contributing to Nigeria's ongoing social and political strife.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.