Ex-Edo commissioner, Afegbua accuses PDP of financing CAN’s campaign against APC over Muslim-Muslim ticket

A former Commissioner for Information in Edo State, Kassim Afegbua, on Sunday accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of fuelling the dispute between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) over the former’s decision to adopt a Muslim-Muslim ticket ahead of 2023 general elections.

CAN had been very vocal in its condemnation of the APC’s decision to opt for a Muslim-Muslim ticket since the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, picked the former Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate.

The matter came to a head last week after some bishops appeared at the unveiling of the ex-governor as APC vice-presidential candidate in Abuja.

The CAN President, Rev. Supo Ayokunle, had in a statement stopped short of describing the clerics that appeared at the event as hired mercenaries.

He challenged the ruling party to mention the names of the bishops seen at the event.

Afegbua, who reacted to the development in a statement, alleged that CAN was being sponsored by the PDP to heat up the polity over the Muslim-Muslim ticket.

The ex-commissioner quit the PDP last year after he accused the Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee (NWC) of funds misappropriation.

READ ALSO: Afegbua resigns from PDP over Atiku’s emergence as presidential candidate

He said: “For the past few days, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has been upbeat over the choice of Senator Kashim Shettima as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the All Progressives’ Congress, APC. Taking an interrogative assessment of their activities, one would think they are altruistic in their demand for the number two position, but latest findings by me, have revealed that CAN is actually being sponsored by the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party to whip up undue sentiments against the candidature of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima and indeed, the APC.

“It started from former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, who has never won in his polling unit, Hong Local Government, Adamawa State, to other CAN leaders who have never deemed it fit to cede the presidency of the association to a core Northern Christian.

“In the over 46 years of CAN, the closest was Cardinal John Onaiyekan, from Kaba, in Kogi State as President of CAN. All other presidents have been of Southern extraction; yet, they desire to have a weak candidate from the North to strengthen PDP in the election.

“Let me state categorically and without any iota of doubt that CAN as a body is working for the Peoples’ Democratic Party. They are being sponsored to sustain a political awareness that cannot pass any true test of ecclesiastical emanation. The PDP had earlier set up a committee to sustain these sentiments in the realiszation that it will weaken the APC and force it to rescind its well thought-out decision to choose a Northern Muslim as the party’s Vice-Presidential candidate.

“They are being funded covertly by PDP elements and my very reliable source confirmed a meeting held in Asokoro at the home of a media mogul, a few days ago, where a decision was taken to sustain the umbrage. I will mention names very soon if they refuse to desist from such satanic plots just to score a cheap political point.”

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