The Tinubu Campaign Organisation has described as ‘unwarranted distractions’ the viral pictures and videos of some Christian clerics at Wednesday’s unveiling of Kashim Shettima, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Vice-Presidential candidate in Abuja.
Mr Bayo Onanuga, Director, Media and Communication, Tinubu Campaign Organisation, in a statement on Thursday, said the clergymen were not fake as was being speculated in the social media.
According to Onanuga,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.
He added that at the unveiling, Messrs Tinubu and Shettima, and former Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi and the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, in their speeches, addressed fundamental issues of nation building.
This, he said, was the focus of the APC and its candidates with a view to ensuring a progressive and prosperous nation where all citizens could find joy and fulfilment.
Mr Onanuga explained that the event was an open affair, which allowed members of the public to attend, ”including the clergymen and others now being derided by hirelings of the opposition”.
“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,” Mr Onanuga said.