By Onome Oghenetega
The South-South zone of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to revoke the controversial clauses in the newly signed Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).
Its National Vice Chairman, Bishop Simeon Okah, said the controversial sections which are aimed to muscle the church should be immediately be expunge in the interest of national peace and stability.
Okah, who is also the presiding bishop of Flock of Christ Mission in Enerhen, near Warri, spoke on Sunday in Warri, Delta State.
He said the Christian community in Nigeria will not sit and allow anyone regulate the activities of the church from the back door.
The PFN leader said the uproar that greeted the signing of the law should alert President Buhari that he has stoked another unnecessary wildfire that is capable of ravaging the entire nation if the needful is not immediately done by the federal government.
Okah said those who smuggled the controversial sub section 838 , 1 & 2 are enemies of the nation and they know the repercussions because the Church will not sit back and watch anyone violate its rights.
As a widely travelled preacher , I understand the regulations in place in Western nations like the U S and Britain. It is basically to protect government Investment in the churches , since as NGOs , they receive grants from the government and the pastors have to account for the funds”, he explained.
Bishop Okah, however, explained that over here in Nigeria, “government has no investment whatsoever in churches and so has no moral right to regulate what it has no inputs in.”
He said the church has kept the law by paying taxes and subjecting to all regulations any of its businesses like schools and hospitals which are profit oriented .
The renowned cleric specifically frowned at a section of the new law which gives the Federal Government the power to remove trustees and foist a leadership on a religious organisation as that would amount to denial of religious freedom which is against the spirit of the Nigerian Constitution.
He called on the National Assembly to immediately revoke that section of the law to save Nigeria from a looming religious crisis .
He urged all well meaning Nigerians , Muslims and Christians alike , to speak out and condemn the controversial law .
