PDP Behind CAN Faceoff With Tinubu, Afegbua Alleges

A former commissioner of information in Edo State, Prince Kassim Afegbua, has said 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).

In a statement he issued yesterday in Abuja, Afegbua said his findings had shown that CAN was being sponsored by the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to whip up undue sentiments against the candidature of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Shettima and indeed, the APC.

He said it started from former secretary to the government of the federation, Babachir Lawal, 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 Kabba, 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.

He said, “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 realisation 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, few days ago, where a decision was taken to sustain the umbrage.