The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in the 17 Southern States have faulted a northern-based cleric over his claims that the election of the new CAN President, Rev. Sampson Supo Ayokunle was flawed .

Dr. Joseph Ajujungwa, who spoke yesterday, said that there was no crisis in CAN over the election.

In a statement in Enugu, Ajujungwa described the statement credited to one Rev Maina Joshua, who claimed to be speaking for the CAN in the 19 northern states as not only “a great fallacy but falsehood personified.”

He further said that the claim was “a big deception,” aimed at deceiving the public. According to him, “CAN is not built on regions, zones, states or ethnicity,” but on blocks like the CSN, CCN, CPFN/PFN, OAIC and TEKAN/ECWA.

“The constitution of CAN does not say presidency should rotate between North and South. For Rev. Maina to be saying this is a sign of just how ignorant he is of what CAN is.

 “Let me state here that no chairman, region, zone or bloc was marginalized during the just concluded transition of CAN and any chairman or region was asked not to vote or participate in the election.

“Let people be aware, anyone that did not participate did so willingly or was not around to vote or participate.”

“Therefore, it is not correct to call people names for any personal interest especially our leader – Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor who has done well for the church in the north in particular and Nigeria as a whole.

“We must learn not to use our selfish interests to destroy the church or its leaders for any reason.

“The southern CAN and the leaders are not happy to be reading nonsense articles from disgruntled persons who have been paid to discredit our sacred body which our fathers have done much to uphold its tenets and prospects.

 “All the leaders that have ruled CAN were elected from their church groups and we know that very soon it will go round to all other blocs who have not tested the highly elevated office of president of CAN.”