The All Progressives Congress (APC) Vice-Presidential candidate Sen. Kashim Shettima was unveiled on Wednesday in Abuja, and photographs and videos of some Christian clergy from the event went viral. The Tinubu Campaign Organization has called them needless distractions.
In a statement on Thursday, Bayo Onanuga, Director of Media and Communication for the Tinubu Campaign Organization, denied that the priests were phony as had been suggested on social media.
“The APC formally presented Sen. Shettima to the public and its various organs as the running mate of its 2023 presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, at a well-attended ceremony,” Onanuga said.
He continued by saying that at the unveiling, Tinubu and Shettima, as well as former governors of Ekiti and Kebbi, Kayode Fayemi and Atiku Bagudu, and the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, addressed core concerns of nation-building in their comments.
According to him, the APC and its candidates are focused on providing a progressive and wealthy country where all citizens can find happiness and fulfillment.
The clerics and several other people who are currently the targets of opposition hirelings were able to attend since the event was open to the public, according to Onanuga.
“We want to say that those clergymen were not fake, not mechanics or yam sellers as the purveyors of hatred have made Nigerians to believe in the social media.
“They are not big names in Christendom yet, they are gradually building up their missions.
“They are Church leaders who genuinely believe that Nigerians must eschew politics of hatred and religious bigotry and rather embrace politics of peace and nation building.
“We therefore deplore the hysterical twisting of the presence of these men and women in cassocks and the false accusation against our candidates, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sen. Shettima,” Onanuga said.
He continued by saying that the staged social media outcry about the clergymen’s attendance was unnecessary and was meant to undercut the enormous success of the opening at the Yar’Adua Center.
However, he voiced the opinion that Nigerians were too intelligent and perceptive to see through this ruse.
He gave the assurance that Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC were working very hard to provide effective administration and good progressive leadership that would enhance Nigerians’ quality of life.
“We are well aware that the opposition parties and the sponsors of the social media charade are jittery and threatened by the intimidating political credentials of our candidates.
“The only way they hope to shift attention of public scrutiny away from their uninspiring candidates and credentials is to create social media distraction.
“Our campaign is determined on focusing on core governance issues that affect Nigerians with a view to confronting them and make the desired improvements in the standard of living of our people,” Onanuga stressed.
