Falana urges authorities to prosecute churches converting charity funds to commercial purposes

Mr Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has urged anti-corruption agencies to prosecute churches converting charity funds to commercial purposes, describing such act as criminal.

He also urged church members to go against the perpetrators of such acts of financial misappropriation.

Falana stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of 2024 Peace Summit of the Justice Development Peace Commission (JDPC) in Lagos on Saturday.

The summit with the theme, “Cultivating a Culture of Peace in Nigeria: A Call to Action,” aimed to reawaken national interest in the people.

He said that it was abysmal for faith bodies to deviate from their core role of service to people to business ventures under the cover of faith.

“Such funds should be tailored to charity works to help people make good living and meet social challenges.

“Remember those funds are not taxed, therefore, it is a criminal act for faith leaders to subject such funds to commercial venture.

“Members of such faith and the authorities in charge of financial misappropriation should go against such perpetrators and bring them to book,” Falana said.

The senior lawyer decried especially the situation whereby church leaders would raise money to build schools and charged high fees which the children of the poor could not afford.

He said the subsisting culture in which the children of the faithful who contributed to the building of the institutions were unable to pay their tuitions was unacceptable.

According to him, the claims by some proprietors of such schools that Jesus Christ asked them to increase tuitions is a mockery of God and His grace to mankind.

NAN reports that JDPC a social arm of the Catholic Church is focused on the promotion of a sustainable and integral human development through a holistic empowerment approach.