Ayokunle, CAN President gets 7-Day ultimatum to resign

By Stanley Onyekwere

There seems no end to the controversies trailing the Christian Association of Nigeria ( CAN), as clergymen under the umbrella of Concerned Christian Forum of Nigeria (CCFN) has asked Samson Olasupo Ayokunle to step aside from his role as CAN President.
In particular, the Forum gave the embattled CAN President seven days to tender his resignation or face a backlash from the church.
CCFN, a group of over 500 pastors in Nigeria decried that CAN is fast drifting into something of a chortle device, a tool in the hands of politicians and champion for ethnic-sectarian bigots.
Making this known through its leader Rev. Prince Thompson, the group argued that Ayokunle underwhelmed, falling short of the massive expectations on his shoulder when he took charge, hence the charge for him to walk away with dignity rather than seek re-election.
According to the group, “CAN’s leadership under the current President, Reverend Supo Ayokunle, was highly anticipated to be reformists enough to return the association to its lost glory, for it to carry out a practically cleansing of CAN to free it of the dirt clinging to it from wallowing in the mire with swine.
“A situation where President of CAN has become a tool in the hands of politicians and champion for ethnic-sectarian bigots in the country is a border that should never have been crossed but that is precisely where Christianity in Nigeria is now camped.
“ The situation is so bad that there are so many allegations about the Reverend and his associates have been collecting money from politicians and keeping same for personal gains in exchange to speaking according to scripts given to them by these politicians.
“We have come to the realization that the violence to the body of Christ cannot be allowed to continue for longer lest there will be more atheist and agnostics than Christians by the time Reverend Ayokunle’s leadership of CAN completes its tenure.”
It continued: “The Concerned Christian Forum of Nigeria therefore demands the immediate resignation of Reverend Supo Ayokunle as CAN President. Our demand entails that the entire CAN Executive resigns with the President to allow the association replace them with a leadership that will chart a course that conforms with the ideology upon which CAN was founded.
“Had CAN pursued the agenda of uniting Christians across the various sects, denominations and persuasions, we would not have need to form this group pressure the leaders into the doing the needful.
“We give the Reverend Ayokunle executive seven days from today (Tuesday) hand over the affairs of the association to an interim committee to run its affairs pending when a new election will be conducted.”