The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has rejected the section of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Amendment Bill, 2026, seeking to penalise preaching and hawking in commercial buses with N50,000 fine or six months imprisonment.

The Christian body urged President Bola Tinubu not to approve the bill, because it is not the urgent need of Nigerians at the moment.

PFN made this known in Lagos shortly after its third quarter national executive council meeting.

Speaking through its National Secretary, Bishop David Bakare, the group said it had studied the bill and expressed appreciation and intention of the lawmakers to ensure safety on the roads. It also appreciated FRSC’s work in ensuring that the roads are safe and secure for road users, but argued that the bill is capable of causing religious tension.

PFN stated further that Nigeria doesn’t have problem about laws, but how to enforce them.

According to him, there are several things begging for attention in Nigeria such as insecurity, hunger in the land and other challenges that should be addressed, but left unaddressed.

“We didn’t think that this is the next thing to bring comfort to Nigerians. Besides that, we are of the opinion that this law is targeted against Christians,” the national secretary said.

He added that Christians are the only people who preach in buses and appealed to the National Assembly not to concentrate on such issues at this critical time in Nigeria.

He stressed that the governments have abandoned major matters needing urgent attention in the nation and are now dealing with matters that are not significance to the well-being of the people.

The group agreed that safety and punishment for disobeying laws are wonderful, but said the FRSC’s law is deliberately targeted against Christians.

He said: “I actually don’t understand why legislators who never enter commercial vehicles understand and believe that those who preach in commercial vehicles are distracting drivers. And we cannot understand how this has become a traffic offence in any form. We are also of the opinion that this is against certain section of the Nigerian constitution that allows us to express ourselves as citizens of this nation.”

Appealing to President Bola Tinubu, not to assent to the bill in his wisdom, PFN said, “if anything he should send it back and allow relevant bodies to deliberate on it to avoid stirring up unnecessary debate.”

“This issue is one matter that the church in Nigeria, the Pentecostals have decided that if government insists on going ahead with this law, we will consider them fighting against what we believe and what the constitution approves for us. And we will not want to have confrontation with the government for any reason and we think we need to bring this to the knowledge of the government,” he said.