November 25, (THEWILL) – Eight members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Christian leaders, led by a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, have dissociated themselves from a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, over his endorsement of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
The group, in a joint statement titled, ‘RE: Dogara, Babachir Lawal-led Northern APC Members Dump Tinubu, Declare Support For Peter Obi’, said it was yet to endorse any presidential candidate ahead of the 2023 polls.
THEWILL reports that former SGF Lawal, released a statement, which purportedly conveyed the decision of aggrieved Northern APC Christian group to support the Obi/Datti ticket of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election.
Babachir Lawal had declared the Muslim-Muslim ticket fielded by the APC as satanic and called on all their members to reject both the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar.
But the Dogara-led group, said the former SGF was expressing a personal choice and not that of the group.
It said the group’s position will be made known to the public at an interfaith event to be held very soon, adding that no one in the group, including the chairman, Engr B. D Lawal, had been mandated to speak to the public about its position at the moment.
The statement, signed by Yakubu Dogara, Simon Achuba, Albert Atiwurcha, Prof Doknan Sheni, Mela A. Nunge, SAN, Gen Ishaya Bauka (retd), Prof Ibrahim Haruna and Mrs Leah Olusiyi, read: “We want to draw the attention of the general public to the recent position canvassed by our Chairman, Engr Babachir Lawal, as the position of our Group. We wish to state that necessary consultations have been concluded, and based on manifestly unassailable empirical data, the group is poised to adopt a position which will be made known to the public at an interfaith event to be held very soon.
“Suffice it to say that no one in the group including the Chairman, has been mandated to speak to the public about our position at this material time. Based on our modus operandi, our position was meant to be presented to the general public at the event above referred to. That has not changed.
“Consequently, the decision to endorse a particular candidate and the statement credited to the chairman are solely the decision and views of the Chairman, which he is entitled to, but not that of the group.
“We hope this statement clears all the queries most of us have been inundated with on this all-important subject matter.”
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