Henry Ojelu
Pastors, religious activists and workers of some Pentecostal churches have petitioned the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria over its plan to promote the” Not-For-Profit Code 2015” against religious organizations in the country.
The code seeks to nullify theocracy in the church which is ascendancy of rulership and headship of the church by spiritual means. It seeks to impose democracy as preferred means of attaining church leadership in the area of appointment, tenure and succession.
Some of the aggrieved churches are Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG); Living Faith International also known as Winners’ Chapel and Foursquare Gospel Church.
Pastor EA Adeboye of RCCG
They alleged that the code is being promoted with active connivance of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment.
Addressing a news conference in Lagos, their counsel led by Bamidele Ogundele said: “governance in the church is a spiritual affair and that any attempt to separate spiritual affair leadership from administrative leadership would bring dichotomy, create crisis within the churches of God and create multidimensional contradictions.”
Ogundele argued that the Sections 1.1, 8-40 of the code which impose General Assembly and tampered with the structures in the church “is anti-Christ, satanic agenda, illegal and a breach and an infringement of the fundamental rights of their clients to freedom of thought, conscience and religion under Section 38(1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Article 8 of the African Charter of Human and Peoples Right (Enforcement And Ratification Act), Law of the Federation 2004.
•Winners’ Chapel Pastor Kumuyi
He said that the council has over-stepped its powers and functions under Sections 7 and 8 of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria as well as duplicating the functions of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) under Companies and Allied Matters Decree, Law of the Federation 2004 which is saddled with the responsibility of registration and monitoring of …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
