By Promise Eze
A pastor of the Dominion Centre International, Frank Onwumere has petitioned the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) over the alleged misappropriation of N2 billion given to religious leaders by Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Onwumere alleged that the money can no longer be traced.
He added that it was diverted by mega-churches and popular pastors and leaders already receiving the presidential candidate across the length and breadth of Nigeria without due consideration to other churches that have not received their part of the funds.
The petition read, “With reference to the above and sequel to the meeting convened by my Church Dominion Centre International as Senior Pastor and few other churches within our locality of the Imo State metropolis on the raging misappropriation of N2 Billion disbursed by Mr. Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party to the various Christian organizations, on behalf of our district of the PFN, we do hereby petition the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), while other bodies duly served under the leadership of the Most Rev. Daniel Chukwudumebi Okoh expressing our disappointment, displeasure and disbelief of how the said funds were disbursed to mega-churches, affluent Pentecostal churches, televangelists and renowned popular names of the Christendom.
“We are appalled and disappointed that such humongous amount of money was given to the church by the Labour party to help and assist in mobilizing and convincing their congregation to vote massively for the candidacy of Mr. Peter Obi but to our chagrin, the said sum of money has developed wings and cannot be traced, as we have it on good authority, that it has been fleeced by mega-churches and popular pastors and leaders who already as we write, are receiving the presidential candidate across the length and breadth of Nigeria without due consideration to other churches that have not received their own part of the funds.
“Sir, our grievances and anger are summarized in the questions below that need urgent answers and why would the Christian body of leaders collect a humongous amount of N2 billion on behalf of the entire Christendom and not remit/disburse same funds for which the funds were meant?
“Why would the Christian body go against the laid down procedures including against the Independent National Electoral Commission mandate (INEC) against party politics and engagement of candidate especially in the issue of religion and collecting funds from the backdoor.”
The cleric noted that from investigations carried out, few Catholic Bishops denied knowledge of the disbursement of the money while others were carried along but the funds.
Onwumere, therefore, appealed to the CAN leadership through the petition “to use your good offices to rein-in on the mega-churches, bishops and senior members of the various organs, to please, call for a round-table discussion on this very vexatious issue so that the funds can be shared equitably and judiciously for the betterment of every church concerned and for the mobilization of Mr. Peter Obi”.
However, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) admitted never to seen such a letter or petition and did not know where the writer also got the CAN stamp on the letter from.
According to Sahara Reporters, Luminous Jannamike, the Special Assistant on Media to the CAN President, Daniel Okoh, noted that the Christian body did not get a letter and promised that it would investigated.
“We did not get the letter. We don’t know where they got that letter from because we did not get it. We are going to investigate it.”
Jannamike noted that CAN is made up of five blocs namely the Christian Council of Nigeria, the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Organisation of African Instituted Churches, and the Evangelical Church Winning All/Fellowship of Churches of Christ in Nigeria.
“So, you can’t just say Obi gave money to Catholic and PFN, how about the others?” he said, noting that there is something suspicious about the letter.
“So we are going to investigate this; that is the bottom line,” he said.
