The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has described the newly introduced charge licence and marriage certificate by Federal Government as an attempt to commercialise Christian marriage in the country.
The PFN’s National President, Rev. (Dr.) Felix Omobude flayed the Ministry of Interior for imposing compulsory N30,000 charge licence on Churches wishing to conduct statutory marriages and N21,000 for each marriage certificate, describing it is an attempt to commercialise Christian marriages in the country.
Omobude accused the Federal government of targeting churches by trying to implement the new marriage certificate law introduced by the Ministry of Interior.
He said: “This is very unfair and to the best of our understanding, the new law is targeted against the Church because the Traditional and Islamic weddings are exempted from paying the new marriage certificate fees.
“PFN is at a loss as to why Church Marriages should be in the exclusive list of the nation’s constitution. The PFN, therefore, calls on the Federal Government to immediately shelve the unpopular policy targeted against Christian marriages in the country.
“If the Ministry of Interior is in dire need of funds, it should look elsewhere and resist the temptation of placing an extra financial burden on the Christians and their churches.”
The clergyman, therefore, threatened to use legal means to stop the new marriage certificate law, if the Federal Government does not shelve what he described as the “unpopular and exploitative policy.”
