Northern CAN, Christian Elders distance themselves from Buhari endorsement

Buhari

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Northern States and Abuja, has dissociated itself from the purported endorsement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.

This came as National Christian Elders Forum, on Sunday, also dissociated itself from the purported endorsement, describing the group as “unaccredited and unrecognised.”

Buhari was said to have been endorsed for the March 28 election by a group, Northern Christian Leaders Eagle-Eye Forum, led by one Pastor Aminchi Habu and was also offered a copy of the Holy Bible.

Reacting, the Public Relations Officer of CAN (19 Northern States and Abuja), Mr Sunny Oibe, said Buhari might have fallen into wrong hands, because that group was not known.

“There is no group like that in Northern Nigeria. I want Buhari to note that those people are impostors. The church in the North is led by ArchBishop Peter Jatto. We have not and cannot endorse Buhari, because he has not told us that he is sorry for his alleged involvement in the post-election violence of 2011.

“When you are desperate, you can fall into the hands of wrong people. Buhari may have fallen into wrong hands. They are not pastors and they are not known in the North,” Oibe said

Christian elders, also reacting through their secretary, Pastor ‘Bosun Emmanuel, in a statement issued in Abuja, on behalf of its chairman, Mr Solomon Asemota, advised Christians “to resist the temptation of putting personal interests above the interests of the Lord Jesus Christ, because such compromise has terrible eternal consequences.”

Similarly, CAN in the North-East, Reverend Shuaibu Byal, at the weekend, denied reports that the association had endorsed Buhari.

Similarly, North-East CAN Chairman has refuted the report that he endorsed Buhari when a group, Arewa Citizen Action for Change (ACAC), paid him a courtesy call in his office in Bauchi last week.

Byal told journalists that at no time during his speech during the visit did he mention anything like endorsement of Buhari.

According to him, the group solicited his words of encouragement and advice on how Christians and Muslims in the North could be able to live peacefully, which he did.

“I was quoted out of context. To say that I have promoted and endorsed Buhari as the presidential candidate because he is from the North is malicious and unfounded,” Reverend Byal stated.