- It Has Come To Stay, Says CAC
The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has added his voice to those condemning the controversial
Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).
The law has continued to generate harsh criticism especially among leaders of the christian faith.
The law signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2020, gives a supervising minister the power to appoint an interim committee over an organization including churches and other faith-based bodies where misappropriation is believed to have taken place.
Adeboye who spoke through his Head of Media and Public Relations, Pastor Olaitan Olubiyi, said, “The stand of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the leadership of the church on issues like this is not always different from whatever the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, (PFN).
“We always align ourselves with whatever the stand of the leadership of CAN and PFN on issues like this. The Redeemed Christian Church of God does not take any decision that is at variance with the stand of CAN and PFN and I’m j same thing applies concerning this very issue.
“Daddy will not take a stand different from the ones of the two organisations, CAN and PFN. CAN and PFN have spoken on the issue of CAMA and as far as the Redeemed Christian Church of God is concerned that is our position too. We are in alignment with that stand,” the RCCG spokesman said
Recall that founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, on August 16 was the first to bring public attention to the CAMA law while preaching on his pulpit.
Oyedepo had rejected the law, urging federal lawmakers to repeal the overbearing aspect of the law, generating controversy.
CAN on August 2O, also joined the plea, saying it was ungoldly and a time bomb waiting to explode.
Also, human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, (SAN) had also fault the law, alluding that it was badly drafted.
Falana had tweeted that the law
was illegal because it is a violation of the fundamental rights to freedom of association guaranteed by section 40 of the Constitution.
“A government that set out to facilitate the ease of doing business could not have come up with a 604-page business law (CAMA 2020)…It’s illegal,” he tweeted.
But the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on has responded to the criticism saying the new Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) has come to stay.
The Commission last Friday, August 21, insisted that it would go ahead with the implementation of the law as soon as the National Assembly properly gazettes it.
The CAC Registrar-General, Garba Abubakar in his message to the Commerce Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) retreat in Abuja, said the time has come for all registered organisations with the Commission to ensure they manage their association properly in line with extant laws.
He said, “They must henceforth subject their finances and expenditures for proper auditing, and copies sent to us at the CAC.
The new legal framework applies to all organisations registered with us be it a religious organisation, NGO or CSO.
“Remember that they also have constitutions guiding them. The criteria to be a trustee of registered organisations are clearly spelt out in the laws establishing them. The laws provide for minimum standards; the constitution also spelt this out. It similarly spelt out how they are supposed to be run. The law says once you submit yourself by accepting to register with the CAC, you are bound to obey all its laws as well.”
