By our reporter| The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, on Monday, described former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal as impostors.
The former Lagos state governor’s comment was in response to weekend meeting with some Muslim groups convened by Dogara to adopt a presidential candidate in a bid to defeat APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
According to a statement by the director of media and publicity, the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu said Dogara was not a member of the APC, hence couldn’t speak for any group of APC members.
“Dogara has apparently lost his mind since he could not realise his self-imposed ambition to be on the presidential ticket of APC, the statement reads.
“The Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council is therefore not surprised by media reports about a meeting of some so-called Northern Christian leaders, who claimed to be members of our All Progressives Congress that were championed by Dogara and his ilks. The claim was totally fraudulent.
“We want to assure Dogara and his co-travellers fanning hate campaign against Tinubu and his running mate, that they will fail spectacularly at the polls.
“Tinubu and Shettima are going into this campaign with clear objectives to engage Nigerians across the socio-economic brackets on policy actions that will make their lives better.”
A group known as the All Progressives Congress (APC) northern Christian leaders had on Saturday resolved to adopt a presidential candidate in a bid to defeat the ruling party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
The group is led by Yakubu Dogara, a former speaker of the house of representatives, and Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF).
Both politicians have repeatedly expressed their dismay over the decision of the APC to field a same-faith ticket.
Dogara, Lawal, and the other members of the group took the decision to work against their party after a meeting in Abuja on Saturday.
“That we have agreed to work together with a view to fostering unity, peace, and national cohesion,” a communique issued after the meeting reads.
“To work together and jointly adopt a pan-Nigerian political platform that will engender unity, inclusiveness, and a sense of belonging among the Nigerian citizenry.
“Conscious of multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural configuration of Nigeria we believe that a same faith ticket and voting along religious lines may trigger dangerous dimensions of negative consequences among our disparate peoples in ways that will hamper nation building.
“Consequently, we have agreed to channel our energies on matters that unite us more as a people instead of encouraging attacks on sensitive issues bothering on religion in the name of politics.
“In view of the above, we have agreed to set up a committee with the mandate to fashion out strategies for advancing the objectives set forth in this resolution.”
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