Sen. Ita Enangs, the Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs, has assured all Christian leaders that the Companies and Allied Matters Act CAMA was not targeted at the Churches, Mosque, and other religious bodies in the country.
Sen. Ita said, contrary to opinion, President Buhari was not the sole sponsor of the bill and had previously withheld his assent.
During his speech in an enlightenment session with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in Abuja, on Tuesday.
According to the presidential aide, the misconception that had trailed the CAMA act was due to deliberate misinformation aimed at blackmailing President Buhari.
His statement read, “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 the same for permission, Mr. President, following extant best practice, escalated the measure to relevant 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 facts, that the CAMA Act does not target churches or religious bodies as wrongly assumed.”
President Buhari had in August this year, signed the amended CAMA act into law.
Irked by the actions of the president Buhari, Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Bible Church and many other Christian leaders had claimed that the CAMA law was targeting the churches in Nigeria.