From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Taraba State governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, the LP, Joel Ikenya, and that of the SDP, Danladi Baido, on Thursday condemned the Taraba State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), for allegedly receiving ₦50 million to endorse the governorship candidate of the PDP Col Kefas Agbu as a Christian candidate ahead of March 11 governorship poll.
The candidates, who spoke at a joint press conference at the Correspondents’ chapel Jalingo, expressed disappointment that CAN Taraba State, rather than being for the entire Christians and development of Taraba as an umbrella body, have chosen to discriminate against other Christians.
They alleged that the state leadership of CAN collected ₦50 million from the PDP governorship candidate Kefas Agbu and endorse him as a preferred candidate for Christian in the state to support in the upcoming governorship election.
“We are disappointed at CAN Taraba State for collecting ₦50 million from an unqualified person and endorsing him as a preferred candidate for Christians in the state. Rather than being for the entire Christians, they have turned themselves into selfish political government parastatals, trying to plunge the state into another mess, we will not allow it to happen again.
“To put the story straight, we were all sent an invitation text message last week from CAN for prayers toward our journey to become governor. We both honoured the invitation and the CAN leadership told us that it was good for us Christian candidates to have an understanding before we go into the poll. We all agreed that it was a good idea since it was for the continued peace of the state.
“To our greatest disappointment, we came home and got another massage from CAN that they have endorsed the PDP candidate Kefas Agbu and we should all support him. It is disappointing that our findings reviewed that they collected ₦50m from the candidate and want all Christians to support him.
“We are not religious candidates, we are candidates of the people who are out to save Taraba State from the mess found in. We will not allow a stranger to rule Taraba again, we are calling on all Christians to disregard the endorsement and support a candidate that knows Taraba and the people’s problems.
“Look at the three of us, can Kefas be compared to us in terms of who is qualified to save Taraba from the abysmal performance of governor Darius Ishaku? He doesn’t know anything or anywhere in Taraba State even in Wukari where he comes from, he can not even mention five council wards in the local government.
“It would have been acceptable if CAN had chosen among the three of us here because we are all qualified. We are grassroots political servants of the people and we know what the people want. Kefas Agbu is not qualified to be governor of Taraba so, we will not allow that bad endorsement stand to confuse Christians because it is all about the future of Taraba State.
“Taraba has been taken backwards in the hands of an unqualified person who does not know the problem of the state and now CAN still want the state to continue in the same mess. We will not allow it to happen.
“We can not stop CAN from abandoning the work of God and embarrassingly looking for money that is capable of destroying the future of the entire Taraba State but we will not allow Christians to follow them in such a bad decision,” they insisted.
Social media was awash with a statement allegedly issued by CAN urging the Christian community in the state to vote for Kefas Agbu of the PDP in the forthcoming election and has sparked negative reactions across the state with sections of the Christian body accusing the CAN leadership of taking unilateral decision capable of creating divisions among Christians in the state.