UMCN Crisis: Stop Blaming Gov. Ishaku, Rev. Doppah tells Bishop Johnwesley.

By Hassan Ishaku.
The Director Connectional Ministry Southern Conference of the United Methodist Church Rev. Philip Micah Doppah has called on Bishop Johnwesley Yohanna of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria to stop blaming Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku for fueling the crisis in  United Methodist Church  but  look inward  for the solution to the crisis rocking the United Methodist Church in Nigeria than blaming others for the Crisis that have lasted for over 15 years.
Bishop Johnwesley Yohanna of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria had earlier the accused Taraba State Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku for fueling the crisis of the United Methodist Church in Taraba state by refusing to open the church cathedral and for supporting Rev. Philip Micah Doppah led Ministry of the United Methodist Church.
In a statement reacting to the accusation by Bishop Johnwesley Yohanna, Rev. Philip Micah Doppah stressed that blaming others for the Crisis of the United Methodist Church is a fruitless effort as the Bishop Johnwesley knows the genesis and solution to the old long Crisis.
“it is very important to give you a small substance of the history of the crisis pinning it to the ultimate creator of problem. As a popular Hausa adage goes “wanda ya daura kura shine zai kunce shi”-meaning he who ties a Hyena to a stick is the same person that will know how to untie it”. He said.
Rev Doppah who went down memory lean to narrate the genesis of the Crisis of the United Methodist Church said the church Crisis predates the UMC in Nigeria, spanning through the days of EKAN Muri church from 1969 through 1984, but the recent crisis started in 2003 under leadership of the first Resident Bishop Done Peter Dabale. 
“When the first Resident Bishop Done Peter Dabale saw the need for an additional conference in view of the rapid Church growth and development under his leadership, four places initially contested for the conference headquarters of the proposed Northern Conference viz Bambur, Pero, Bauchi and Jos, but Jos withdrew from the contest. The election for the headquarters of the new conference that was held at Jatutu Memorial Cathedral, Magami in Jalingo under the chairmanship of Bishop Simon Mutum of Anglican Dioceses, Jalingo on the 24/4/2004 had the following voting results, Bambur -93 votes, Pero-121 votes and Bauchi -7 votes.”The people of Karim Lamido under the leadership of Rev.  Johnwesley Yohanna and Mr. Danladi Balutu formed a rebel group called “Concerned United Methodist Church”. Rev. Johnwesley Yohanna was the chairman of Steering Committee till date and Mr. Danladi Balutu was the chairman Advisory Committee till date that is why we have this divided church today” He said.
He noted that the Johnwesley Yohanna led faction preached hatred against late Bishop Done Peter Dabale and introduced tribalism and dual offering in most Churches within Jalingo leading to the first fight at UMCN Mayo-Gwoi where one person was killed, another person’s hand amputated, houses where burnt and properties worth millions of naira were destroyed.
Rev. Doppah further revealed that during the crisis the then Governor of Taraba State Jolly Nyame closed down 10 UMCN Churches in Jalingo until the intervention by the then President, Council of Bishops of the UMC delegation led by Bishop Peter D. Weaver that the closed churches were reopened on15/12/2005. 
“Rev.Johnwesley organized several attacks on the late Bishop Dabale motorcade, In one of such attacks, it was Mrs Priscilla Nyame’s security aides that rescued Bishop Dabale from the attacking forces.They kept terrorizing late Bishop Dabale asking him to vacate his position as the Bishop, fabricated all sorts of lies which led to the suspension of Late Bishop Dabale by the council of Bishops for six months.  After his return from the suspension, he eventually died on 25/8/2006 at Houston Hospital USA. His death was celebrated by Rev. Johnwesley Yohanna and his group i.e “Concerned Methodist”
 “In March 2007, late Bishop Kefas K. Mavula was elected as the second Resident Bishop of Nigeria, Rev.  JohnWesley Yohanna and his group refused to recognize him as Bishop until his death after serving for 10 months and days, he died on 11/1/2008. Rev. Johnwesley introduced deviant behavior in the church in the UMC Nigeria till today. 
Rev. Johnwesley took over the Jatutu Memmorial Cathedral of the UMC in Magami, renamed the Cathedral as McBride church even with a Resident Bishop Dabale on ground, It is the same Rev. Johnwesley that is now demanding that the same Cathedral he seized without recourse to the resident Bishop. He applied the same technic by denying late Bishop Kefas Mavula the chance to conduct his induction as a newly elected Bishop in the cathedral thereby forcing Bishop Mavula to go to his home village of Nyaja in Lau LGA to do his induction”. He revealed.
He said following the death of Late Bishop Mavula, Retired Arthur F. Kulah was assigned by the council of Bishops in March 2008 to reconcile the church, but Bishop Arthur Kulah  who led the church for four years further throwed the church into deep Crisis that the church is witnessing today. 
“During Bishop Arthur F. Kulah, Rev. Johnwesley and his group continue to rebel against his leadership. Even when unity, peace and reconciliation service was organized by Bishop Arthur F. Kulah in consultation with Late Governor Danbaba Suntai on 18/10/2010, Rev. Johnwesley and his group called “Concerned United Methodist” rejected the peace move, and organized thugs to loot our church property at Jatutu Memorial Cathedral. Late Governor Danbaba intervened by sending security who arrested 5 pastors and 7 members involved in looting of church property at that time.  They were arraigned before the commissioner of Police Aliyu Musa on 16/10/2010. After the arrest, Rev. Johnwesley and Concerned United Methodist took Bishop Arthur F. Kulah to court. It took the intervention of the Anglican Bishop Timothy Yahaya who pleaded with high court judge for out of court settlement”. He explained.
Speaking on the election of the Bishop of the United Methodist Church Rev. Philip Micah Doppah also narrated that in December 2012 when the Nigerian Bishop election  was slated to hold in Sierra Leone strange policy outside the church law was introduced, called the identification, where 3 conferences were expected to vote separately using 2010 accredited delegates with Southern Conference having 671 delegates, Central Conference 314 delegates and Northern Conference 156 delegates.
“The Southern and Northern Conferences conducted their identification base on the number of 2010 delegates while Central Conference because of Rev. Johnwesley desperation used 567 delegates instead of 314 delegates. 
Southern and Northern Conference disagreed and decided to boycotte both the final nomination session held in Karim Maundi and the purported election that took place in Sierra Leone on 6/10/2012 and the eventual consecration that took place on 7/10/2012. After writing several warnings and petitions for the right things to be done, but Bishop Kulah refuse because he sold his conscience for materialism”. 
“On Bishop Johnwesley returning from Sierra Leone, Late Governor Danbaba Suntai realized that only 7 out of 20 delegates from Nigeria participated in the election in Sierra Leone while 13 delegates from Nigeria boycotted the election. Taraba state Security Council met and directed the suspension of “The Bishop Election” on 16/10/2012 to cool down heightened tempers at that time. Till date no further directive have been made to revoke that order””It may interest the world to know that when Late Danbaba Suntai had plane crash, Rev. Johnwesley and his group celebrated the crash even his eventual death. Rev. Johnwesley and his people blamed his lack of recognition by the Taraba State Government on Late Governor Danbaba Suntai.
Unfortunately, whoever that tries to wade into the UMCN crisis, Rev. Johnwesley tend to accuse him of fueling the crisis he fomented in the church”.
“He blamed Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), TEKAN/ECWA block of CAN Taraba State, Rev. Caleb Ahima President of Christian Reformed Church in Nigeria, Rev. Magaji Isaiah Jirape the State Chairman.This blame game on Arch. Darius Dickson Ishaku did not start today”. He stressed.
He further narrate that Bishop Johnwesley started his faulty rule in the UMCN by posting Pastors out of Jalingo as a hate campaign against those he perceived as his enemies within the clergy.
“Rev. Johnwesley  started taking pastors and laity of the Southern Conference to the police and courts by instituting a petition against seven pastors including Rev. John Simon Jatutu (former Special Adviser to the government of Taraba State on religious matters) accusing him of refusing to hand over the church to him”.
 “the Acting governort then UTC instead of studying the problem of the church very well he just ordered security operatives to seized our Cathedral, Guest House and Secretariat and gave it to Rev. Johnwesley simply because he is from the same local government of Karim Lamido with Rev. Johnwesley. The same Rev. Johnwesley and his people deceived UTC that they will vote for him to be the next Governor of Taraba State. 
 We reported the matter to Alhaji Sani Danladi who took over as Acting Governor from UTC on the seizure of our properties to him he did not do anything about it”. He revealed.
While speaking on the effort of Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku to proffer lasting solution to church crisis,  Rev. Doppah also revealed that when Governor Ishaku came on board on May 29th 2015, the crisis of the church was already 12 years old and the Governor set up different committees to ensure that peace and normalcy return to the church but didn’t yield any result.
“Governor Ishaku set up CAN peace committee Chaired by Late Dr. Ben Ubeh, Rev. Isaiah Jirapye Magaji and Fr. James Vonti as members. The report of the committee was submitted to the Governor for action on March 16th 2016. The recommendations by CAN which would have brought far receiving solutions to the crisis, yet Rev. Johnwesley referred to CAN’s recommendations as bias.
 Yet Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku further mandated UMCN public servants to mediate and proffer solutions under the Chairmanship of Hon. Danladi Baido, the present Federal House of Representative member for Karim Lamido, Lau and Ardo Kola Federal Constituency. The report was submitted to the Governor on 4th March 2016, Rev. Johnwesley refused to abide by the submission of the committee. 
Another CAN committee effort at peace for the UMC Chaired by Rev. Dr. Innocent Solomon, the then State CAN Chairman with Bishop Nedison of Anglican Diocese Jalingo, Rev. Dr. Caleb O.S Ahima, the present CRCN President and the National Vice President of CAN and former LCCN Bishop Joshua James Jen. All these efforts and many more put in place by Governor Darius Dickson, Rev. Johnwesley did not see anything good out of these committees”
“Rev. Johnwesley, should not be seeking relevance from the press by accusing “Governor Ishaku of Taraba responsible for fueling crisis of the United Methodist Church Nigeria”. The world must know that Governor Darius have a very good heart and intention towards maintaining peace and normalcy in all churches in Taraba not only UMCN. If he cannot be appreciated by Bishop. Johnwesley and his camp, he should not be maligned for fueling crisis in the UMC in Nigeria”. He stressed.
The recommendations by CAN which would have brought far receiving solutions to the crisis, yet Rev. Johnwesley referred to CAN’s recommendations as bias.
 Yet Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku further mandated UMCN public servants to mediate and proffer solutions under the Chairmanship of Hon. Danladi Baido, the present Federal House of Representative member for Karim Lamido, Lau and Ardo Kola Federal Constituency. The report was submitted to the Governor on 4th March 2016, Rev. Johnwesley refused to abide by the submission of the committee. 
Another CAN committee effort at peace for the UMC Chaired by Rev. Dr. Innocent Solomon, the then State CAN Chairman with Bishop Nedison of Anglican Diocese Jalingo, Rev. Dr. Caleb O.S Ahima, the present CRCN President and the National Vice President of CAN and former LCCN Bishop Joshua James Jen. All these efforts and many more put in place by Governor Darius Dickson, Rev. Johnwesley did not see anything good out of these committees”
“Rev. Johnwesley, should not be seeking relevance from the press by accusing “Governor Ishaku of Taraba responsible for fueling crisis of the United Methodist Church Nigeria”. The world must know that Governor Darius have a very good heart and intention towards maintaining peace and normalcy in all churches in Taraba not only UMCN. If he cannot be appreciated by Bishop. Johnwesley and his camp, he should not be maligned for fueling crisis in the UMC in Nigeria”. He stressed.