By Caleb Ayansina

ABUJA – COALITION of Civil Society Groups have described as ignorance of the essence of Christian faith, a call by some quarters for the scrap of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission(NCPC).

The coalition of over 15 civil groups said though constructive criticism of the commission is welcome for it to improve its operation, calling for total scrapping by some people had uterior motive.

Amb. Splendour Agbonkpolor, who spoke on behalf of the group to newsmen on the leadership style of the former Executive Secretary of NCPC, John Kennedy Okpara, in Abuja, said his leadership style had inscribed postively the commission on the mind of the people of Nigeria.

“The criticism is meant for them (NCPC) to improve their operation, but to my knowledge, NCPC is an orgonisation of government that have come to stay, because it has exhibited values that cannot be quantified.

“Scrapping it is not the best idea. It think what government should do is to encourage them to ensure better service delivery. We in the civil society say no to the call,” he said.

Agbonkpolor noted that the commision, in view of current cashcrunch in the country due to economic situation, had under Okpara’s leadership “emplaced a transparent programme of pilgrimage support in conjunction with the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) that will not only ease the burden of funding christian pilgrims but also serve as an avenue to generate jobs and a source of livelihood for unemployed citizens.”