The Christain Association of Nigeria (CAN) has said its opposition to the Muslim-Muslim tickets of Bola Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor and Kashim Shettima, a former Borno State governor as presidential and vice-presidential candidates respectively under the All Progressives Congress (APC) remained.
Newsonline reports that CAN said since the decision was taken in the administration of the immediate past CAN president, Samson Ayokunle, the present administration of Daniel Okoh and CAN cannot accept the same faith ticket.
In a statement released on Monday, the Christian body in Nigeria said the news making round that it accepted the same faith ticket of Tinubu and Shettima was malicious, ridiculous and untrue.
The statement signed by the Special Assistant on Media to the leadership of the association, Luminous Jannamike, read, “The attention of the leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria has been drawn to a media report titled, ‘How Tinubu met, resolved Muslim-Muslim ticket with CAN’, which claimed that the apex Christian body had changed its position regarding the same faith ticket.
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“To say the least, the story is ridiculous, malicious, untrue and should be disregarded in its entirety by all reasonable members of the society.
“For the records, CAN took a position against the same faith ticket imbroglio under the leadership of Rev. Dr Samson Ayokunle, its immediate past national president and as a matter of fact, His Eminence Archbishop Daniel Okoh, stands on that same position.”
CAN added that Tinubu’s presence and donation at last week’s 70th birthday of Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, was for the Kukah Center and not for Bishop Kukah nor CAN, and should not be seen as a financial inducement.
“The event was public and the friends of the celebrant and other good-spirited Nigerians donated to the building of The Kukah Centre, which is designed to be a veritable platform to propagate and promote the ideals of democracy and responsible leadership through research and intellectualism.
“The donations, which went directly to The Kukah Centre, have nothing to do with CAN. It is therefore mischievous to insinuate it was a sort of bribe money for Christian leaders to make a u-turn on its stance against the same faith ticket.
“For the umpteenth time, the CAN reiterates that it is non-partisan, but remains willing to partner with all leaders and other relevant stakeholders towards achieving unity, peace and progress in our nation.”
