President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Ita Enang, has assured Christian leaders that the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, was not targeted at the churches, mosques and other religious bodies in Nigeria.
Enang said contrary to opinion, Buhari was not the sponsor of the bill and had previously withheld his assent.
He spoke during an enlightenment session with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in Abuja, on Tuesday.
The presidential aide stated that the misconceptions that had trailed the Act was due to deliberate misinformation, aimed at blackmailing Buhari.
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.
“First, the bill as it then was, was not an executive bill transmitted by President Buhari to the legislature.
“It was initiated by a Senator and member of the House in the respective chambers, at the behest of the Corporate Affairs Commission and support of the Ministry of Trade and Investment.
”Secondly, upon receipt of same for assent, Mr President in accordance with extant best practice escalated the measure to appropriate Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
“They made different inputs some of which led to Mr President declining assent twice to the bill in the entire tenure or life of the 8th Assembly.
“We want to declare as a fact, that the Act does not target churches or religious bodies as wrongly assumed.”
Buhari had in August, 2020 signed the amended CAMA Act into law.
Irked by the action of the president, Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Bible Church and some Christian leaders had claimed that the law was targeting the church.