– CAN
Spokesperson Following the threat by the Catholic
Church to pull out of the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN), the
Christian body has reacted to the
threat, saying their action is as a
result of the loss of the Presidency of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria
(PFN) to Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. The Public Relations Officer of the 19
Northern States of CAN and Abuja, Mr.
Sunny Oibe, in an interview with
Journalists on Wednesday night, also
accused Catholics of arrogance.
According to him, “There is no division in CAN and we are all
speaking with one language. There
are some certain elements in the
leadership of PFN led by Cardinal
John Onaiyekan because he lost PFN
Presidency to Oritsejafor, who has a lot of achievements,” he said. “There is no need for anybody to
lose sleep over the threat by
Catholics to pull out of CAN because
without them CAN will still continue.
The constitution of CAN makes
provision that membership can be terminated by any group that is
misbehaving or any group can also
terminate their membership. “Why is it that when Catholics were
in the leadership of CAN, every bloc
supported them but now because
power has changed hands, they are
threatening to pull out and causing
confusion? They have been agitating that the Presidency of CAN must one
from the South. They are appendage
of PDP and PDP themselves. They are
known for double standards. A man
of God should not be double-
speaking.” Oibe who is also the spokesperson of
the President of “Tarayar Ekklisiyar
Kristi A Nijeriya,” a conglomeration
of 13 church groups in CAN, said
Catholics should not mislead the
public even if they want to pull out: “The Catholics are claiming that the
current CAN leadership has deviated
from the vision of the founding
fathers when they don’t even know
how CAN came about. What did the
Catholics know about the vision of the founding fathers? CAN was
formed because of the
marginalisation of Christians in the
North. The Christians in the North,
particularly those of them from the
TEKAN extraction, came together and formed Northern Christian
Association. It was that body that
metamorphosed to CAN.” informationng.com