WALTER SAMUEL NKANU ONNOGHEN, JSC: (Delivering the Leading Judgment) By an Amended Statement of Claim filed on the 22nd day of July, 1994 at the High Court of Abia State, Holden at Aba, in suit No. A/404/92, the plaintiffs therein, now respondents in this Court, claimed the following reliefs:
"(a) A declaration that the purported dissolution of the District Youths Fellowship and the National Youths Fellowship by the 3rd defendant's letter dated 22nd of April, 1992 without giving the members of the two bodies an opportunity of defending the "package of questions" put to Rev. J.O. Nwoye and without complying with the provisions of the Constitution of Christ Ascension Church of Nigeria, is null and void and of no effect.
(b) A declaration that the so-called National Planning Committee under whose cover the 1st defendant has been running the affairs of the church as a private business to the exclusion of the General Council, a body vested with power by the Constitution to run the affairs …