The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has distanced itself from the formal unveiling of Senator Kashim Shettima as the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the party announced Shettima as his running mate on Sunday, 10 July when he paid a Sallah homage to President Muhammadu Buhari in his hometown, Daura in Katsina State.
Despite the opposition that trailed his choice of a Muslim running mate, Tinubu formally unveiled Shettima as his running mate at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua centre in Abuja on Wednesday.
And in an apparent move to douse the criticisms that the party’s choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket is a tendency towards an Islamic janjaweed inclination, Tinubu invited unknown persons robed in clerical garb to grace the event.
Reacting to the pictures of the supposed bishops and pastors who attended the unveiling ceremony, the National Public Relations Officer of CAN, Bayo Adedeji, said the association has not wavered on its position on Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“Our position on Muslim-Muslim ticket is irreversible. Anybody can claim to be anything, but one thing is clear, CAN was not part of the unveiling programme of Shettima,” he said.
“Let them name the CAN officials that attended the programme and their offices. If they could use 2017 photos to claim that some bishops visited Senator Shettima and lied that Pastor E. A. Adeboye had endorsed them, they could do anything.”
The Chairman of CAN, Kaduna State, Rev. Joseph Hayab, who also aired his opinion on the viral pictures said the outfit of some of the ‘clerics’ looked like something from a Nollywood movie.
“The people we saw at the unveiling of Shettima as the presidential running mate to Bola Tinubu, paraded as bishops, are people who did not have enough time to learn how to wear bishop’s garments. Take a closer look at their photo and you will see another Nollywood movie,” Hayab said.
“BAT is free to hire mechanics and other artisans and sew clerical garments for them. An effort that will only add to their many ropes when the political exercise is over but will not change the need for fairness and justice that CAN is calling for.
“CAN appreciates that we are in a democracy. No need to do funny and dubious things just to prove a point because it will, in the end, bounce back. BAT team should simply do what is right and stop the drama.”
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