ECWA church urges El-Rufai to withdraw Kaduna public preaching bill
ECWA church urges El-Rufai to withdraw Kaduna public preaching bill
The leaders of ECWA, one of the largest church denominations in Northern Nigeria, have asked the Kaduna State Government to withdraw the bill seeking to regulate public preaching.
The 63rd General Church Council of the Evangelical Church Winning All, ECWA, on Friday rose from its annual meeting to make the demand.
The church advised the Kaduna government not to pass the bill into law.
“The Bill raises fears, concerns and contradiction that will in turn ultimately negate Sections 38 and 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to citizen’s right to worship,” it said.
“While commending the efforts of the Kaduna State Government towards ensuring peaceful co-existence, Council however cautions against the passage of the proposed Religious Bill which ECWA viewed in the larger context as containing a lot of flaws.”
The bill, which has the backing of the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, seeks to make religious persons who want to preach publicly get permission from a registered body which will be made of Christian and Islamic leaders in Kaduna.
In its communiqué on Friday, the ECWA church also commended the effort of the Federal Government in recovering stolen funds.
“The church notes the efforts of the Federal Government to recover stolen public funds and commends the courage behind it and cautioned that funds recovered are not re-looted.”
While urging the government to respect the fundamental rights of the suspects in the process, the communiqué asked the government to thoroughly investigate every corruption case and pursue it diligently to logical conclusion.
