The Christian Association of Nigeria has suspended the association’s chairman in Gombe, according to a letter shared on social media Thursday afternoon.

Sunday Congo was asked to step aside following his public congratulatory message to terror-linked communications minister Isa Ali Pantami on his fake FUTO professorship.

“Following the recent publication of your congratulatory message” to Mr Pantami, the suspension letter said. “We write to inform you that your actions have generated a lot of concerns amongst members of the Christian Association of Nigeria.”

Last week, Governor Bello Mutawalle sponsored commercials in newspapers congratulating Mr Pantami on his purported promotion to the rank of full professor of cybersecurity by an unnamed university.

Peoples Gazette later discovered that it was the Federal University of Technology in Owerri that confirmed the controversial minister with a professor even though he had no prior affiliation to the school.

The school later said it waved some requirements for Mr Pantami to be made a professor, a claim rubbished by scholars, including journalism professor and The Gazette columnist Farooq Kperogi.

CAN said Mr Congo’s letter to the minister was unprofessional and unauthorised, saying he would face disciplinary action for the misconduct.

The Christian body said the congratulatory message to Mr Pantami did not reflect its position on the minister. 

The controversy came months after Mr Pantami was exposed as a religious fundamentalist who had called for the massacre and subjugation of Christians in Nigeria. After initially arguing that he was a lover of people of different religious leanings, he later backtracked and said his comments came when he was young. The Gazette reported that Mr Pantami was in his mid-30s at the time of the controversial sermons in the 2000s.