The presiding bishop of the Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel, David Oyedepo, has rejected the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020, (CAMA) signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 7.
The new law repeals the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990.
Under the new law, the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is empowered to strictly regulate religious bodies and charity organisation.
Speaking during the church’s service on August 16, Oyedepo argued that the law was informed by government’s jealousy of the prosperity of the church. He demanded to know why churches should be made to go through the same laws with companies.
Oyedepo noted that the church is God’s heritage on earth and attempt to pattern it in line with man’s desire
He said, “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. 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 concentration of giants on earth.”