Fred Ezeh, Abuja

Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has accused the Federal Government of hiding under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (CAMA) recently assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari to stifle the church.
CAN insisted that the law was unacceptable, ungodly, reprehensible and an ill-wind that blows no one no good. It also described sections 839 (1) &(2) which empowers a certain Commission to suspend trustees of an association (in this case, the church) and appoint interim managers to manage the affairs of the association as satanic and must be expunged.
CAN President, Dr. Samson Ayokunle Olasupo, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, said: “If government insist on imposing the law, which the entire church in Nigeria has outrightly rejected, then, they have declared war on Christian faith.
He alleged that the aforementioned sections of the law was deliberately or secretly inserted as plot by the government to strengthen its destructive agenda against the Church.
The CAN president added: “The agenda is becoming open and clearer. If government cannot give the people good amenities of life as required by the constitution, then they should not bother to take away the liberty to worship.
“While we are not against the government fighting corruption wherever it may be found, we completely reject the idea of bringing the Church, which is technically grouped among the NGOs, under the control of government.
“The Church cannot be controlled by the government because of its spiritual responsibilities and obligations. Federal government should, therefore, stop forthwith, implementation of the obnoxious and ungodly law until the religious institutions are exempted from it.”
CAN president recalled that few years ago, there was public hearing conducted by the National Assembly on the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) bill tagged Bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the NGO regulatory commission for the supervision, coordination and monitoring of NGOs, which was attended by CAN and many NGOs.
“At the public hearing, the bill that sought to bring the religious organisations and NGOs under the control and influence of the government was totally rejected because it would snuff life out of the church and rank the church as a secular institution under secular control.
“We thought the matter was over until we heard of CAMA that was recently assented to by the president, thus making the rejected bill a law. The satanic section of the controversial and ungodly law empowers a certain Commission to suspend trustees of an association (in this case, the church) and appoint the interim managers to manage the affairs of the association for some given reasons.”
He, thus, called on President Buhari to urgently return the law to the National Assembly for immediate amendment, insisting that Nigeria should not be compared with any other nation when it comes to the relationship between the religious institutions and the government as being the case.