Hi how would i return the value of word in the count words function to words in the main function im returning the wrong value. Am i returning it correctly

Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int countWords(FILE *fp, char filech);
int main(void)
{
	
	FILE *fp;
	int i;
	char cnt;
	char ch;
	int words=0, line=0, characters=0;
	
	/*open in binary*/
	if((fp = fopen("count.txt", "r")) ==NULL)
	{
	   printf("cannot open\n");
	   exit(1);	
	}
	while( (ch = fgetc(fp)) != EOF)
	{
		/*counts no characters in file*/
        cnt++;
        
        /*counts the no of lines in file*/
        if(ch == '\n')
        {
        line = line +1;
        
        }
        characters = characters +1;
         
       /*counts the number of words in a file*/
       /*
       if(ch == '\n' || ch == ' ' || ch == '.')
       {
      	 
      	 words = words +1;
       }
       */
       words = countWords(fp, ch);
        
	}
   printf("no chars is:%d\n",cnt);
   
   printf("No of Lines %d\n", line);
	printf("no of words are%d\n", words); 
	   return 0;
		
	}
	
int countWords(FILE *fp, char filech)
{
	char word;
	if(filech == '\n' || filech== ' ' || filech == '.')
    {
      	  word = word +1;
      	 
    }
	return (word);
}