The Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, has been sued by the Traditional Religious Practitioners’ Association (TRPA) in Nigeria for refusing to register the traditional worshippers as a religious organization.
Like the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), TRPA is requesting registration as a religious organization.
Traditional Religious Practitioners Association, TRPA, led by Dibia Chukwuma Ezeoruonye and two other trustees, requested to be registered as a corporate entity for the promotion of their faith in its online application for registration to the CAC in June 2022. However, the CAC denied the request for registration in its response to the application.
The Commission in its reply to the TRPA on July 11 2022 said: “The CAC regrets to inform you that it was unable to approve any of the names(s) submitted for approval…name not registrable as their forms of worship and practices are not publicly available.”
The traditional religious worshippers claim in their lawsuit (Suit No. FHC/EN/CS/140/2022), filed in the Federal High Court of Enugu, that the CAC discriminated against them by denying their registration on the basis of their religious practice, in violation of section 42 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Other religious groups have been incorporated by the defendants but chose to deny us just because we are traditional worshippers; there is no other way to convince the defendants to go ahead and incorporate us as the Board of Trustee of the Association except by the intervention of this court,” the plaintiffs petitioned.
The Federal Government of Nigeria, the Attorney General, and the Minister of Justice are all named as co-defendants in the lawsuit.
The Plaintiffs are requesting a declaration that the CAC’s refusal to approve Traditional Religious Practitioners’Association as a name for the purposes of incorporating them as registered Trustees of TRPA is a violation of their right to freedom of religion/worship and discriminatory in violation of the 1999 constitution as amended; they are also requesting a declaration that the refusal made under part C of the Companies and Allied Matters Act was ultra vires and illegal.
As a result, they pleaded with the court to issue an order ordering the CAC to allow the registration and assess whether the organization is registrable and if the CAC erred in refusing to authorize the name even though it does not violate the law.
In his affidavit in support of the originating summon, the chairman of the TRPA Board of Trustees, Dibia Chukwuma Ezeoruonye, claimed that the CAC’s refusal to approve the proposed name violated the TRPA’s right to freedom of religion, which is protected by section 38 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Government of Nigeria, which is a second defendant in the case.
The hearing will start once the judges return from their yearly vacation following the filing of the suit at the Federal High Court in Enugu on July 21, 2022.