CAMA: Knights express worry over controversial section as implementation begins January 2021

The Order of the Knights of Saint Mulumba, Nigeria, has expressed concern over what it described as rising insecurity and economic hardship in the country.

At a news conference in Asaba on its Supreme Council Convention, the National Leader and Worthy Supreme Knight of the religious group, Sir Diamond Ovueraye urged the federal government to intensify efforts at surmounting the prevailing security and economic challenges.

He said, ”The Order as a body corporate in Nigeria with its Christo-centric ideals, has come out boldly and decisively to condemn the poor management of the crises ranging from insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country, the lingering herders-farmers clashes and attendant killings of innocent persons in the Middle-Belt, banditry and cattle rustling in the North West, ethnic and religious clashes in Southern Kaduna, and kidnapping of innocent citizens in virtually all parts of the country.”

Sir Ovueraye stated further, ”The Order had also raised alarm that the country was fast descending into anarchy, if urgent and concrete measures were not adopted to stem the decline in all facets of the daily lives of Nigerians.”

He said that despite the fact that the Niger-Delta remained the mainstay of the nation’s economy, many people in the region were still living in squalor and abject poverty.

While describing the situation as unacceptable, Sir Ovueraye urged the relevant government agencies to be alive to their responsibilities by doing the needful.

He, however, commended Delta and Edo state governments for infrastructural development in the two states, and urged them to do more to improve the wellbeing of the masses.

On the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari recently, Sir Ovueraye said the Order of the Knights of Saint Mulumba, Nigeria, unequivocally threw its weight behind the position of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria which condemned the controversial section of the Acts, and called for its immediate abbrogation.

”We had earlier in a press statement drawn the attention to the very controversial aspects of Section 839 (i)–(ii) which had also generated disparate reactions from a cross section of Nigerians. That section in Part F of the Act, empowers the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to suspend Trustees of Association, appoint new Trustees of Association and or interim managers of association or their Assets/Property. Since the term ‘association’ was not aptly defined, it leaves room for the Corporate Affairs Commission to surreptitiously exert unfettered control over religious bodies and churches.”

He said that the 41st Supreme Council Convention holding in Asaba had as its theme: ‘The Church and Global Challenges’, which he considered apt in the light of the scenario.