INFORMATION ENUGU

By Emeka Mamah
ENUGU—The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in the 17 Southern States have faulted a northern-based cleric over his claims that the election of the new CAN President, Rev. Sampson Supo Ayokunle was flawed.
CAN President, Rev Ayokunle Secretary of CAN in the Southern region, Dr. Joseph Ajujungwa, who spoke yesterday, said that there was no crisis in CAN over the election.

In a statement in Enugu, Ajujungwa described the statement credited to one Rev Maina Joshua, who claimed to be speaking for the CAN in the 19 northern states as not only “a great fallacy but falsehood personified.”
He further said that the claim was “a big deception,” aimed at deceiving the public.
According to him, “CAN is not built on regions, zones, states or ethnicity,” but on blocks like the CSN, CCN, CPFN/PFN, OAIC and TEKAN/ECWA.
“The constitution of CAN does not say presidency should rotate between North and South. For Rev. Maina to be saying this is a sign of just how ignorant he is of what CAN is.
“Let me state here that no chairman, region, zone or bloc was marginalized during the just concluded transition of CAN and no chairman or region was asked not to vote or participate in the election.
“Let people be aware, anyone that did not participate did so willingly or was not around to vote or participate.”
“Therefore, it is not correct to call people names for any personal interest especially our leader – Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor who has done well for the church in the north in particular and Nigeria as a whole.
“We must learn not to use our selfish interests to destroy the church or its leaders for any reason.
“The southern CAN and the leaders are not happy to be reading nonsense articles from disgruntled persons who have been paid to discredit our sacred body which our fathers have done much to uphold its tenets and prospects.
“All the leaders that have ruled CAN were elected from their church groups and we know that very soon it will go round to all other blocs who have not tested the highly elevated office of president of CAN.”
He then advised TEKAN/ECWA to join forces together with OAIC to get the position, since they started a fight that favoured the CCN.
“We all know that no one bloc can clique the position all alone without others working with it. Let us be sincere to ourselves, let us tell the truth to the public as leaders who understand the CAN constitution. This politics of calumny should stop.
“I want to state here that: There is no crisis in CAN. There was never a time Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor influenced the election of his vice as the new president of CAN.
“There was never a time that the 19 northern states were marginalized or deprived, the opportunity of producing CAN president.
“Anyone paid to destroy, castigate or tell lies against the Christian body should for his own interest desist. We cannot compromise the unity we have.
“The unity of Nigerian Christians is not in doubt and should not be mortgaged for any filthy lucre.
“Finally, we call on all Christians to pray for Nigeria and the government of President Buhari that God will help him to succeed, and to do the right thing.”