You are running CAN like appendage of APC - Christian elders blast Ayokunle for visiting Buhari
- NCEF has berated the CAN president, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, over his post-election visit to President Muhammadu Buhari
- CAN led by Rev. Ayokunle had visited Buhari to congratulate him on his reelection at the Saturday, February 23, presidential election
- The Christian elders accused Ayokunle of running CAN as an appendage of the All Progressives Congress
The recent visit by the leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) led by Reverend Samson Ayokunle to President Muhammadu Buhari, has irked the anger of Christian elders forum in Nigeria.
The Nation reports that the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) under the leadership of a former minister of defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.) and Solomon Asemota (SAN), faulted the congratulatory visit of the CAN to Buhari on his victory in the 2019 general elections, describing it as “morally and spiritually reprehensible.”
Legit.ng gathered that the the organisation alleged that the President of CAN, Ayokunle “is running CAN as an appendage of the All Progressives Congress.”
CAN president Samson Ayokunle had led the visit, which the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) described as “shocking”.
It was learnt that NCEF said CAN should not have congratulated Buhari on his victory at the February 23 election.
But the CAN insisted that it remained apolitical, adding that since the electoral umpire has declared Buhari winner, it had no right to say no.
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Besides, it stressed that the NCEF had no authority to speak for Christians because “it has been disbanded”.
NCEF, therefore, disassociated itself from the visit, claiming that it is “subjudice” as the determination of who won the election is still in court, adding that, ''it is, therefore, premature and presumptuous for anyone to congratulate President Buhari for ‘winning’ an election that is contested in court.”
A statement issued in Abuja on Monday, April 1, by the chairman of NCEF, Solomon Asemota (SAN), read in part: “The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) was shocked to read in the news that the president of CAN, Rev. Dr. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, with some CAN officials and Christian leaders paid a ‘congratulatory’ visit to President Muhammadu Buhari on his purported victory in the 2019 general elections.
“The NCEF wishes to state that the congratulatory visit to Aso Villa by CAN could not be in the interest of Nigerian Christians who daily bear the agony of thousands of their brethren being killed, displaced and marginalised in the Jihad launched in the northern parts of the country. It is well known the indifference of the Buhari administration to the murder of Christians all over the country.
''This indifference has led many, including foreign observers, to conclude that the Buhari administration is complicit in the genocide that is taking place in Nigeria.
“The action of the CAN President, Rev. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, is a further confirmation of all the protests and petitions of NCEF in 2018 querying the faithfulness of Dr. Ayokunle to Christ and to His church.
''With this ill-advised congratulatory visit to President Buhari, it should be clear to every Christian of good conscience that Rev. Ayokunle is running CAN as an appendage of APC which has proven by its religiously popularism biased appointments and policies that it is primarily a religious party that is to the disadvantage of Christians whom Rev. Ayokunle claims to be representing.
The statement further read: ''As President Goodluck Jonathan demonstrated in 2015, the will of the people must not be subverted. We are no longer in the era of military coup in which individual(s) can impose themselves as rulers over the nation.
''This is democracy and the will of the people must not be subverted. Any attempt to kill democracy by a president who subverts the very process that brought him to power under the instrumentality of stealth and conventional jihad must be resisted and rejected.
“NCEF aligns itself with the stand of the ethnic nationalities in South West, South East, South South and Middle Belt zones that the Judiciary should perform its rightful oversight and ensure that the rightful winner of the 2019 elections is sworn into office in May 29, 2019.
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''If the judiciary, for whatever reason, is unable to take a stand and defend the will of the people then Nigeria would have destroyed Democracy and signed on as a fascist state.”
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) admonished President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of people he would appoint into his cabinet when he officially took the second term leadership mantle in May 2019.
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Source: Legit.ng
