The crisis within the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, deepened on Thursday as the leadership of the religious group in the South-South slammed a suspension on some clerics from the Niger Delta area initiating the reconciliation of the aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party with the Presidency.
CAN’s South-South Chairman, Archbishop God-Dowell Avwomakpa, announced the suspension barely a day after the group condemned CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor for his leadership quality. The peace initiative, under the platform of Global Peace Relief Initiative, had drawn the wrath of CAN leadership.
However, leader of the peace initiators, Prophet Jones Erue, threatened legal action against Avwomakpa and CAN, saying the former had no capacity to suspend them.
Erue, in a statement, disowned Avwomapka, saying he lacked the capacity to suspend the truce brokers. “Avwomakpa has no capacity to suspend us; he is not our member. We only invited him to join us when our delegation visited Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
“We give him 48 hours to retract the announcement of our suspension and all the bad things he said about us or else we will institute legal action against him and CAN.”
Erue said the group now knew the enemies of the country and would “not allow them to sleep.”
The clerics had earlier took on Oritsejafor over reported comments in which the CAN boss allegedly disparaged them for attempting to reconcile the G-7 Governors with the Presidency.
Erue had described Oritsejafor’s statement to the effect that CAN was apolitical as laughable, accusing the CAN President of getting involved in politics of calumny and name dropping.