By Our Correspondent

National News – The Auxiliary Bishop of the Owerri Archdiocese, Most Rev. Moses Chikwe, has emerged as the new chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Imo State, ending an eight-month leadership crisis that followed an earlier inconclusive election.

The new chairman was elected on Friday at the CAN Secretariat in Owerri after being nominated by the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, the bloc to which the chairmanship position was zoned under the association’s rotational arrangement.

The crisis began when the previous election failed to produce a winner after the Catholic candidate, Fr. Gerald Njoku, did not secure the required two-thirds majority stipulated in the CAN constitution.

Njoku reportedly obtained 45 votes, while 38 members declined to ratify the result, leaving the association without a substantive chairman for more than eight months.

To resolve the stalemate, the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria was asked to nominate another candidate for a fresh election conducted by the CAN Electoral College.

During the rerun held on Friday, Chikwe emerged as the sole candidate presented and received unanimous support from delegates representing the association’s five blocs.

Speaking after the election, Chikwe confirmed that the voting process was peaceful and transparent, noting that all delegates voted in his favour.

According to him, the election recorded a total of 73 votes out of 73 delegates present.

He pledged to prioritise unity among Christian groups in Imo State and promised that the association would return to its core mandate of promoting justice, defending human dignity, and serving as a moral voice in society.

Chikwe also assured members that he would work closely with all blocs within the association, including the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, the Christian Council of Nigeria, the Christian Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria/Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, the Organisation of African Instituted Churches, TEKAN, and ECWA.

Meanwhile, CAN legal adviser and stakeholder Oluchukwu Nnabugwu expressed relief that peace had been restored within the association.

He commended members for respecting the rotational leadership system and urged Christians across the state to support the new chairman’s administration to strengthen unity and stability in the organisation.