The pastor Ayo Oritsejafor led Christian Association of Nigeria is in a deep mess. And this is not unconnected to the over N8 billion largesse purportedly gotten from the two leading presidential candidates of PDP and APC, President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. Insiders informed us that since allegations and counter allegations have been flying here and there that some top pastors pocketed N7billion from President Jonathan and that some northern clergy equally picked money close to N1billion from Gen. Buhari for endorsement in the forthcoming election, the organisation called CAN has been polarised into three factions. One faction belonging to Bishop Oyedepo is allegedly spearheading the Jonathan’s endorsement on behalf on Bishop Oritsejafor while some top pastors from the the Redeemed Christian Church of God are rooting for Buhari. The their group belongs to the revered pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye whose body language is for both parties.
It would be recalled that more facts emerged on the allegation by Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, that President Goodluck Jonathan gave pastors across the country N6bn to vote against the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), in the presidential election.
A Borno-based Pastor, Kallamu Musa-Dikwa, who spilled the beans on Thursday, February 19,2015 claimed that the money that was given to pastors by the President was actually N7bn and not N6bn as alleged by Amaechi, who doubles as the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation.
Amaechi had alleged that unnamed leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party paid N6bn to Christian clerics to campaign against Buhari and the APC.
The governor’s allegation caused a stir among the Christian clerics, with the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria and the Northern State Christian Elders Forum asking Amaechi to name the church leaders, who collected the huge bribe.
But Musa-Dikwa, who is the Executive Director of the Voice of Northern Christian Movement, told journalists in Kaduna on Thursday that the said money was channelled through the Christian Association of Nigeria.
He said the CAN got the said money(N7bn) on January 26, 2015 and disbursed N3m to each State Chairmen of the CAN across the country.
Musa-Dikwa, who was an Associate Pastor with the E. Y. N. Church, Farm Centre, Dikwa Road, Maiduguri, Borno State, under Rev. Emmanuel Kwajihe between 2002 and 2004, said the CAN had started threatening Christians in the state (Borno) that they must re-elect Jonathan in the rescheduled election.
He said, “It was N7bn that was given to the CAN leadership by President Goodluck Jonathan. They(CAN) later disbursed N3m to the State Chairmen of the CAN.
“The money was handed over to the CAN Leadership on 26th January, 2014.”
“Actually, President Jonathan is using CAN President, and it was the CAN President who collected the monies and shared N3m to the CAN executives in each state.
“And some Pentecostal Bishops also collected their share. Actually, the money is not N6bn, it is N7bn. This is what I know. One of the CAN officials from Abuja told me that they have collected the money. The corruption in CAN is terrible. They are corrupting the body of Christ because of money.
“They are now threatening Christians in Borno State that they will deal with anybody, who refuses to vote for Jonathan. And the CAN officials are now campaigning that if Buhari emerges President, he will Islamise Nigeria; and that Osinbajo collected monies from Islamic world; and that the same Osinbajo will resign soon after Buhari wins to give way for Tinubu to emerge Vice President.”
Musa-Dikwa named some high-profile clerics, who had benefitted from the controversial largesse to actualise the re-election bid of Jonathan.
Meanwhile, a Northern clergy also exposed the APC presidential candidate that he too splashed money on pastors for endorsement.
In an interview with Nigerian Pilot, Pastor Bitrus Yerima, the national president of Gospel Advancement Leadership Initiative and a member the Northern Christian Leaders Eagle-eyes Forum, said that most of the pastors, including himself, who attended the “endorsement meeting” had no prior knowledge of what was to happen at the event.
He said: “Actually, we were told that Gen. Buhari wanted to have an audience with us regarding his presidential aspiration. The idea was that it was going to be an interactive session. I believe this is a sponsored endorsement. Our patrons and leaders are too noble to bring us to this embarrassing situation this way.
“There was no meeting or agreement that suggests that this organisation or all leaders of Christians in the North should come and endorse Gen. Buhari or any other presidential candidates,” he said.
According to him, “whoever came up with this idea, I believe, is speaking his own mind and not that of Northern Christian leaders. What you just witnessed is a fraud. This Forum has no right to take such a decision the way it has taken. Our members comprise of people belonging to different political parties and it is our belief that our members are free to vote for any candidate of their choice,” he said.
Another pastor who sought anonymity told our correspondent that the agenda was dead on arrival.
“The fact is that we were taken unawares by this so-called endorsement. Some of us have invested our integrity in our spiritual assignment that we cannot sell ourselves so cheaply. There are going to be a lot of counter reactions to this embarrassing development after this moment.”
Outside the lobby of the ICC, pastors were sharply divided as they discussed the development and its implications on their integrity and sub-groups in the northern region. A group was overheard expressing its displeasure that they could be invited to such a “shameful programme.”
One of them told newsmen when he was approached that the endorsement was planned. “I am an insider and I know everything that is happening here.”
The cleric stated that he had been in Abuja since the beginning of the week for an important event before a friend who was one of the organisers of the event asked him to wait behind to attend the meeting.
“It was supposed to be an interactive discussion with Gen. Buhari by the pastors to hear from him the grievances of the clerics from the northern part of the country but dramatically, it turned out as an endorsement meeting. Of course, the pastors will collect their welfare packages and go back knowing full well that this is fake,” he said.
Another Jos-based clergyman lamented that he had been dribbled into what he described as a big scam by politicians in the forum who are working for APC.
“Some of us were promised N100,000 each if we come here (Abuja). Later, they said the money had been reduced to figure of N50,000.”
However, what aggravated the anger of the clerics was the way they said they were shabbily treated. “What is so annoying now is that they eventually gave those of us who came from Jos N5,000, and then doled out N3,000 to those within Abuja axis. It is regrettable to have come here at all,” he said.
When Pastor Aminchi was later asked by newsmen to react to the grievances of some of his members, he said that “all the members on our list were sponsored.”
Asked to clarify the contention that the issue of endorsement of Buhari or any other presidential candidate was never discussed in any of their previous meetings and if it was, did the executive council of the Forum send the resolutions to all members, Pastor Aminchi emphatically stated that, “the issue was well discussed and attended.
“We held meetings in Zaria and Kaduna last week. Anyone who has a dissenting voice against what we have just done is definitely not our member,” he said.
In an attempt to give the meeting a wider spread, some of the pastors registered their churches in the states of the North where they are not represented. They also included the names of churches whose leaders were invited but did not attend the meeting.
Among the northern Christian leaders in at the meeting included Pastor Paul Great of Methodist Church, Jos; Bishop Lawrence Awanorwo, New Creation School of Divinity, Niger State; Bishop Daniel Oboni, Christ Life Evangelistic Church, Bauchi State (instead of Jos); Bishop Musa Gomson, Unlimited Mercy and Glory Church, Gombe State (instead of Jos); Apostle (Dr.) Abraham Babe, World Christian Mission, Taraba State (operates in Jos); Paul Zumta, Alheri Baptist Church, Sokoto State; Rev. Sam Adejoh, Life Changer Christian Centre, Yobe (instead of Jos); Rev. Daniel D. Gonzuk, Amazing Grace, Benue State (operates in Jos); Rev. Emmanuel Edesiri, Destiny Path Assembly Int. Nasarawa State (instead of Jos), Rev. (Dr.) Sunday, Divine Latter Times, Borno State (instead of Jos) and others.
Beside Osinbajo, Buhari was accompanied to the meeting by former Chief of Army Staff and Director of Security Committee of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, Prof. Abdullahi and Gen. Paul Tarfa. Both Buhari and Osinbajo were presented copies of the Holy Bible at the meeting.