The news of the shutting down of a church in Nnewi, Anambra state, over noise pollution caught my attention during the week. The closing down which was ordered by a Chief Magistrate’s Court presided over by Mr. A. C. Emekwue followed the litigation against public nuisance instituted by the Director of Environmental Health Services. Curiously, the identity of the church was not made public.
The church was accused of mounting an amplifier and five loudspeakers in front of its premises and tuning them at a higher pitch, leading to noise pollution in the neighbourhood.
The prosecution described the situation as “prejudicial to man’ s health, which is punishable under Section 21 of the Public Health Laws of Anambra state 2006”.
The church was also accused of failure to comply with the terms and requisition of abatement notice referenced No: 00000896 served on it.
The prosecution said the condition was punishable under Sections 8(1,4b) and 9(1,2) of the Public Health Laws of Anambra state.
The prosecution presented three witnesses who all testified that the activities of the church, especially during its vigils, were not just a source of noise pollution, but also a great disturbance to an 86-year-old woman.
However, the President-General of the community, who was called in as a witness to the defendant, said the activities of the church did not disturb anybody.
Delivering judgment on the matter, the court presided over by A. C. Emekwue directed the director of environmental health services and Nnewi North LGA to seal off the church.
The court also directed the defendant to relocate the church within 10 days or face one-year imprisonment without an option of a fine.
The Nnewi church has joined the growing list of casualties recorded in Christendom in recent times. Other states like Lagos and Kaduna have been having running battles with noisy worship centres. Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i of Kaduna state recently gave teeth to the law illegalising noise pollution in both churches and mosques. He was promptly labelled as the anti-Christ the whole world has been waiting for. I am yet to see the kind of brush his fellow Muslims would tar him with.
Recently, precisely on June 7, this year, a mild drama unfolded at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), the Glory Tabernacle Parish, at Ijapo Estate in Akure, Ondo state, when Justice Oyebisi Folayemi Omoleye, a presiding judge of the Court of Appeal, allegedly took the law into her own hands and confronted the parishioners over their cacophonic religious activities.
According to an account woven together by Sahara Reporters, Justice Omoleye, wielding a stick (not gavel) in her hand, invaded the church premises, in company of her security guard and allegedly assaulted some of its worshippers who were neck-deep in one of their midweek programmes, code-named the “Divine Encounter”.
It was gathered that the Justice, after storming the auditorium, began to gather evidence by filming the goings-on in the church with her mobile camera.
Later, she turned to Mr. Felix Solomon, a pastor in the parish, Felicia Akindurojoye, an assistant pastor and some others and began to whip them in the manner that Christ chased away traders and gamblers in the synagogue for turning His Father’s house from a place of worship to a den of thieves. Injuries were reportedly sustained during the one-woman confrontation with the “children” of God. She too could be branded as an anti-Christ like El-Rufa’i.
The source that preferred to lie low said Justice Omoleye had always been furious about the noise from the church during its religious activities.
According to the source, the assistant pastor, Akindurojoye (68), who was coming out of the church covering her face with her bag, challenged the judge as to why she was recording her face and the people in the house of God. She was rewarded with a slap that must have caused her to see stars in the daytime for having the temerity to challenge her. The Justice then defended her action by saying that she filmed everybody because the church is a counterfeit one while those worshipping in the place are all evil people.
The administrative officer of the church, Mr. Olatunde Awoyelu, who confirmed the invasion, accused the judge of intimidating the church because of her status. He explained that Justice Omoleye had complained about the disturbance caused by the church during its weekly programme and had attempted in the past to have the church relocated.
“This same woman has come here several times to complain about our church’s activities that we were always disturbing her peace in the estate. In fact, she made several attempts to evict us from the estate and we did all to resist her. But we told her that the church had been in this place before she bought her house and we even got the approval of the Ondo State Property Development Corporation,” said Awoyelu.
Dele Oyeshola, Pastor-in-Charge of the Ondo RCCG Province 1 Church, who also confirmed the incident, fumed that Justice Omoleye had always been against the siting of the church beside her residence.
It is no longer news that noise pollution spewed by worship centres now constitutes health hazard. Many of us do not know the value of quality sleep. Many people are gradually slipping into insanity because of inadequate sleep. You don’t have to be a great shakes as a sleep expert to know the danger of insufficient sleep. The first step into the voyage of lunacy begins with sleeplessness. Latest statistics show that over 90m Nigerians are hugging mental disorders. And insomnia is a major factor. Many have been taken to churches for healing. But as can be seen today, most of them are fake as labelled by the combative judge… noise without substance, fury without fire and motion without movement! The Christendom has been taken over by fraudsters and con artists.
I love what Lagos state has been doing since the days of Babatunde Fashola regarding noise pollution. The tempo is still being sustained. In that sleepless city arising from its nature such as noise pollution, it is not just churches that are being closed down. Mosques too are being shut as part of a plan to make Lagos free of noise pollution by the year 2020.
Bola Shabi, general manager of Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, won my heart recently when he disclosed that 70 churches, 20 mosques and about 11 hotels, club houses and beer parlours had been closed down. He said mosques, where the call to prayer is broadcast from minarets by loudspeakers, were more compliant than churches, and most would reduce the noise level as soon as they were challenged.
Former Plateau state governor, Jonah Jang, once sniffed the air while in office and declared that there were more churches in Nigeria than beer parlours. While beer parlours breed drunkards, most of the churches located in makeshift structures, tents and uncompleted buildings, are defined by the iniquities of their members.
Shabi is also having a running battle with noisemakers on the city highways. While horns are hardly heard on the Japanese streets, Nigerian motorists freely exchange greetings with the blaring of their horns. It is a pity that we humans are generally noisy by nature: new babies even announce their arrivals with noise!
I can only wish all the anti-noise fighters well in their quest to drive noiselessness into our psyche. Have a quiet weekend.
