{"id":48948,"date":"2023-05-09T22:57:15","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T22:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=48948"},"modified":"2023-05-09T22:49:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T22:49:44","slug":"hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds March to Lira High Court as Christians barred from PAG churches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Business came to a standstill in Lira City after hundreds of protesting born-again Christians marched to the Lira High Court on Monday to “get relief from protracted court battles involving their church.”<\/p>\n

The believers, who were singing \u201cYahweh, Yahweh\u201d, were recently blocked by the High Court in Kampala from accessing more than 200 churches built in the name of Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) Uganda.<\/p>\n

As a result, the affected Christians resorted to prayers \u201cso that Jesus Christ would save them from the shame occasioned by the court ruling.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, the group trekked a distance of more than 50kilometres to the High Court in Lira.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re welcome,\u201d the Lira Resident Judge, Justice Duncan Gaswaga, told the aggrieved Christians.<\/p>\n

However, he cautioned lawyers not to bring such a huge number of people to court, adding that the \u201ccourt would not entertain them on May 29.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their lawyers, Emmanuel Kigenyi and Gerald Etuk from Kigenyi Opira and Company Advocates, told journalists that they did not mobilise their clients to go to court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese individuals went to court. They have grievances. They mobilised locally, got money, constructed churches. However, there is a company called Pentecostal Assembly of God Limited which was registered in 1999. So, this company is claiming that all those properties which they (Christians) acquired using their money belong to them,\u201d Kigenyi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for them they didn\u2019t want to be violent, they decided to go to court so that court could determine that dispute of land ownership,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Background<\/b><\/p>\n

In a March 31, 2023 ruling, which has since rubbed believers in a wrong way, Justice Musa Ssekaana ordered that dozens of places of worship under Lira pastorate are no go areas for believers subscribing to the deregistered PAG Lira Limited.<\/p>\n

The ruling followed an 8-year long leadership and property dispute between PAG Uganda and PAG Lira Limited.<\/p>\n

PAG Lira was formed in 2013 by more than 300,000 Christians. This was after they broke away from PAG Uganda following the termination of services of Bishop Joel Mukalu, a decision his followers believe was arrived at in bad faith.<\/p>\n

The leadership of PAG Uganda then ran to court, alleging that \u201con obtaining a name-change, PAG Lira moved ahead and seized PAG Uganda Limited\u2019s assets\u201d, particularly churches in Lango Sub-region and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that PAG has over 200 local churches in Lira, Dokolo, Oyam, Apac, Kole, Otuke, Alebtong, Kwania and Dokolo districts.<\/p>\n

The High Court in Kampala, however, gave the order in general and broad terms; a declaratory order that all properties registered in the names of the plaintiff and illegally held by Joel Mukalu (1st defendant) should be returned to the plaintiff.<\/p>\n

However, Christians have protested the court decision, saying it impacts negatively on believers who were not party to the case.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Business came to a standstill in Lira City after hundreds of protesting born-again Christians marched to the Lira High Court on Monday to “get relief from protracted court battles involving their church.” The believers, who were singing \u201cYahweh, Yahweh\u201d, were recently blocked by the High Court in Kampala from accessing more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":48947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-48948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nHundreds March to Lira High Court as Christians barred from PAG churches - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Business came to a standstill in Lira City after hundreds of protesting born-again Christians marched to the Lira High C ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hundreds March to Lira High Court as Christians barred from PAG churches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Business came to a standstill in Lira City after hundreds of protesting born-again Christians marched to the Lira High C ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-09T22:57:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683654454.39.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"688\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Hundreds March to Lira High Court as Christians barred from PAG churches\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-09T22:57:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches\"},\"wordCount\":484,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683654454.39.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hundreds-march-to-lira-high-court-as-christians-barred-from-pag-churches\",\"name\":\"Hundreds March to Lira High Court as Christians barred from PAG churches - 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