The suspended Anglican Archbishop of the Province of the Niger and Bishop of the Diocese of Awka in Anambra State, Alexander Ibezim, has sued the Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Henry C. Ndukuba, over his suspension and plan to matter him to disciplinary court cases.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Ndukuba suspended the archbishop for 6 months over quite a lot of allegations, together with the sale of church land for N2 billion.
The suspension, consistent with the primate, was once to permit for clear investigations into allegations in opposition to the archbishop and the diocese.
Mr Ndukuba additionally introduced the appointment of the Bishop of the Diocese of Aguata, Samuel Ezeofor,
because the supervising bishop of the church’s Diocese of Awka and coordinating bishop of the Province of the Niger.
The lawsuit
Mr Ibezim filed the go well with on the Top Court docket of Anambra State, Awka Judicial Department on 13 October, consistent with a courtroom file bought by way of PREMIUM TIMES.
The suspended archbishop filed the go well with thru his prison crew led by way of B.E.I. Nwofor, a Senior Recommend of Nigeria.
A overview of the courtroom file confirmed the go well with was once filed at the identical day the primate suspended the archbishop.
Mr Ndukuba was once indexed as the primary defendant within the go well with, whilst the Dean of the Church of Nigeria, Blessing Enyindah, is the second one defendant.
PREMIUM TIMES remembers Mr Enyindah chaired a visitation crew to the Diocese of Awka throughout the probe of the archbishop’s actions.
In an originating summons, Mr Ibezim is looking for the translation of related provisions of the 2020 Charter and Canons of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) governing disciplinary court cases in opposition to serving diocesan bishops.
The suspended archbishop advised the courtroom that the visitation crew was once “illegally constituted” by way of the primate in a letter dated 17 June 2026.
The suspended archbishop requested the courtroom to decide the process for disciplining a serving diocesan bishop and the level to which the church’s governing rules should be seen earlier than any sanction may also be imposed.
He prayed the courtroom for a declaration that the process for disciplining a serving diocesan bishop is supplied for less than sections 55 and 75 to 76 of the church’s 2020 Charter, in addition to sections 22 to twenty-eight of Canon XVI.
Mr Ibezim desires the courtroom to verify that the prescribed process should be strictly adopted earlier than any disciplinary measure, together with suspension or elimination from workplace as Bishop of Awka and Archbishop of the Province of the Niger, may also be imposed on him.
The cleric additionally appealed to the courtroom to claim that a minimum of one of the crucial 10 offences indexed beneath segment 1 of Canon XVI should be established earlier than disciplinary motion can lawfully be taken in opposition to him.
The provisions define offences for which senior clerics, together with the primate, archbishops, bishops, clergymen and deacons, could also be attempted beneath the church’s disciplinary framework.
Mr Ibezim additional prayed the courtroom to decide the right kind interpretation and alertness of a number of constitutional and canonical provisions governing the tasks, powers and duties of quite a lot of workplaces throughout the Church of Nigeria.
The cleric cited quite a lot of provisions of the Canons to incorporate Cannon V, VI, VII, IX, XII, XIV, XV, XVI and XVII, as foundation for his lawsuit which offered a spread of prison questions that he desires the courtroom to get to the bottom of.
Mr Ibezim additionally prayed the courtroom to factor an interlocutory injunction to restrain the church leaders from postponing, doing away with, retiring, or brushing aside him from his ecclesiastical workplaces till the resolution of the substantive go well with.
The defendants, whose cope with was once indexed as St Matthias Space, Plot 942, Ibrahim Waziri Crescent, Gudu District, Apo, Abuja, have 42 days from the date of provider of the originating summons to go into an look.
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