News - South West
Updated: August 17, 2020

Bishop Oyedepo Breaks Silence Over CAMA In Churches

By Zaccheus Ukhueleigbe
August 17, 2020
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The founder and presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church, also known as Winners Chapel in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, Bishop David O. Oyedepo has kicked against the application of the Company and Allied Matters Acts (CAMA) in churches.

AllNews recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari signed CAMA into law on August 7, 2020

CAMA law provides religious bodies and charity organizations will be strictly regulated by the registrar-general of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and a supervising minister.

Addressing members of his congregation on Sunday, Oyedepo said such laws were borne of out the government’s jealousy about the prosperity recorded by the church.

Oyedepo questioned the rationality behind subjecting churches to the same laws as companies, describing the church as God’s heritage on earth.

“The church is God’s heritage on earth. Molest the wife of somebody and you will see the anger of that person. The church is the bride of Christ. You know how a strong man is when you tamper with his wife. The church is the body of Christ. We are under obligation to give warnings to wicked rulers so we could be free from their blood,” he said.

“The church works on the pattern delivered by God not the pattern of man. The government has no power to appoint people over churches. This is a secular nation. The church is the greatest asset of God in this country. Please be warned. Judgment is coming. The Lord says I have been still but now I will arise. Anybody that is in this deal is taking poison. This will never work. I am waiting for a day when anybody will appoint a trustee over this church… You can’t gag anybody. We own this country together.

“It is only in Africa that people who are over 80 years still run around to become president. I know that it is the prosperity of the church that is making them jealous. But I am going to live to see an army of many winners soar greater. In this church shall emerge one of the largest concentrations of giants on earth.”

Presidential Reaction

AllNews reports that Lauretta Onochie, media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari reacted to Bishop David Oyedepo's, reaction against the application of the Company and Allied Matters Acts (CAMA) in churches.

Onochie via her Twitter page declared that Oyedepo will have to live by the laws in Nigeria or manufacture his own country.

Her tweet read: “I hope this is not true. If it is, Oyedepo will have to manufacture his own country and live by his own laws.

“As long as he lives and operates within the entity called Nigeria, he will live by Nigerian rules and laws.

“He will do as he’s told by the law. Enough of lawlessness.”

I hope this is not true.
If it is, Oyedepo will have to manufacture his own country and live by his own laws.

As long as he lives and operates within the entity called Nigeria, he will live by Nigerian rules and laws. He will do as he's told by the law?

Enough of lawlessness pic.twitter.com/A0lMPe7Cku