El-Rufai under fire over plans to demolish Dunamis’ churches in Kaduna

The Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has tackled Governor Nasir El-Rufai over his threat to demolish structures housing Dunamis church in the state.

The state secretary of CAN, Dr. Sunday Ibrahim, said yesterday that Christians will resist any attempt to persecute them.

CAN’s decisions came on the heels of an official letter from the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Agency (KAPSUDA) asking the church to provide details of its operation in the state.

Acting general manager of KAPSUDA, Fatima Bambale, in a letter No. PS/14/PP/ZIII/20, 624/ VOL.I/0 entitled ‘Update of Religious Institutions within the State’, stated: “I am directed to request you to furnish the agency with your details through the attached form.

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“You are to reply within seven days of receiving this letter.”

Reacting, the CAN scribe pointed out that KAPSUDA’s letter was part of government’s move to embark on the persecution of Christians in the state.

In a reactionary letter to the agency, CAN stated, “We write to express our dissatisfaction with the content of your letter and to remind the agency that it is a government agency and not individual establishment.

“Where the government, through the agency, finds it necessary to update religious institutions within the state, we strongly believe that the agency knows well enough the proper channel to follow which is through CAN or Interfaith.

“We find it offensive, and suspect it as ill-conceived and inappropriate that the agency should write the individual church directly disregarding CAN.

“This provokes in us a sense of suspicion that it is an attempt at using KAPSUDA, which is a government agency, as a tool to persecute the Dunamis International Gospel Centre Churches in Kaduna State.”

DAILY POST reports that there had been an altercation between Governor El-Rufai and the General Overseer of Dunamis, Pastor Paul Enenche, after the kidnap and death of a paramount chief of Adara last year.