The Presidency has rubbished claims that the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 targets churches, mosques and other religious bodies.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, speaking to the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday, said the claims were “mischievous and an attempt by the opposition to blackmail the President for political motive.”
He said: “Misconceptions have enveloped this Act with deliberate misinformation and falsehood by persons who may not have fully and in-fact personally read and digested the provision of the Act. We consider it appropriate and responsible to appear before you and other fora to make these explanations.
“We want to declare as a fact, that the Act does not target churches or religious bodies as wrongly assumed. For an illustration of this, I present a tabular form of the provisions of the 1990 Act which came into force on January 2, 1990, which after more than 30 years of operation has now been repealed and replaced by CAMA 2020.
“Hereunder are the comparative provisions in the two enactments to show particularly that the 2020 Act assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari has not introduced any matter oppressive to the Christian Community or any religion nor any matter discriminatory against any class of persons in Nigeria.”
