Petition By Catholic Bloc Led To Postponement of Taraba CAN Elections – Cleric
By Andrew Ojih, Jalingo.
The Dean of Cabinet of the Southern Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC), Rev Philip Micah Dopah on Sunday said that the Petition written against the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) by the Catholic bloc of the Taraba State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was what led to the postponement of CAN elections that were supposed to have held on Saturday 8-01-2025.
Rev Philip Micah Dopah
Dopah who stated this during an interview with selected journalists in his office in Jalingo, said the Catholic bloc of Taraba CAN in the state wrote a petition following a plea by Taraba State Governor, Agbu Kefas to endorse a neutral person to govern the CAN leadership in the state.
“The PFN pleaded that their late member who was CAN Chairman in the state and died in accident after few years in office didn’t complete his tenure.
“They wrote to the interim committee of CAN requesting that they should be allowed to finish the tenure of their late member, Rev Ben Obeh who died in an accident on 25th/ 03/ 2018.
“The Catholic bloc objected to their request and said they have never serve as Chairman of CAN in the state.
“They insisted that this is the time of the Catholic bloc, therefore the request by the PFN will not stand, and that brought serious leadership tussle into CAN in the state.
“When the governor discovered that both the PFN and Catholic bloc refused to resolve their issues, he now pleaded for a neutral person.
“When the three months duration given to us to conduct the elections ended, we invited the Catholic bloc and PFN to resolve the leadership dispute, three of the Catholic bloc members worked out of meeting, and that led to the postponement for another three months” he said.
He added that the allegation labeled by the Global Methodist Church (GMCN) signed by Bazel Yoila Yayuba and Rev. Peter Y. Bawa that he is not affiliated with the TEKAN churches, making him unqualified to run for any position under the TEKAN ECWA bloc was baseless and unfounded.
“The petitioners claimed that Rev. Dopah’s application to join the TEKAN churches under the auspices of the then UMCN, as led by Bishop John Yohanna Wesley, has not been approved; thus, my eligibility has been questioned regarding me vying for a position reserved for the TEKAN ECWA bloc in Taraba State” he stressed.
