The Christian Association of Nigeria, Northern Region, on Tuesday, denied endorsing Governor Yahaya Bello for the office of Nigeria’s president in 2023, describing as “a fabrication” an online report on the issue.
The Christian body stated that no candidate was endorsed by the CAN leadership in the 19 Northern States and Abuja during its extraordinary meeting in Abuja last weekend.
In the communique of the meeting, signed by the Public Relations Officer of Northern CAN, Chaplain Jechonia Gilbert, the apex Christian group stated that its members belonged to different political persuasions; hence, it was unthinkable for CAN to have adopted a sitting governor, who is not even a flag bearer of any political party, as its candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
The communique read in part, “The strategy meeting is to collate reports from the various zones concerning the security situation in various States that make up the zone with the aim of helping the leadership of Northern CAN in making a bold statement to the nation concerning the worrisome security challenges in the North.”
“We pray for Nigerians to close ranks for the purpose of defeating the enemies of Nigerians, especially those killing in the name of religion, those kidnapping for ransom and those raping our women across the country. We must unite and stand together to stamp out this evil from our nation.”
“We also want to clarify the recent report in some online papers that Northern CAN had adopted Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State as its presidential candidate for the 2023 general election.
“Northern CAN, from history, has NEVER adopted any individual for any elective position in the history of elections in Nigeria and neither will it do so this time. Our duty to the Nigerian nation as a religious body, is to pray for the peace of the nation and encourage our members to participate in every constitutional process towards nation building.
“As an organisation with large followership and its members belonging to different political persuasions, it is unthinkable to assume that we have adopted a particular individual who is not even a flag bearer of any political party as our candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
“We call on the public to disregard such reportage as it is never the thought or imagination of Northern CAN. There has NEVER been any meeting of the leadership of Northern CAN where such a decision was ever taken.”
