Full Statement: No Fake Bishops Attended Shettima’s Unveiling – Tinubu

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has denied reports that fake Bishops were hired to attend the unveiling of his running mate Senator Kashim Shettima.

Tinubu in a statement on Thursday by the Spokesman of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation (TCO), Bayo Onanuga, said the clerics were actually genuine and upcoming.

He asserted that the clerics are church leaders who genuinely believe that Nigerians must eschew politics of hatred and religious bigotry and rather embrace politics of peace and nation building.

The APC presidential candidate stated that the viral videos and pictures of the clerics at the event were the handiworks of political distractors.

He, however, stated that the outrage over the development on and off social media was an unwarranted distraction.

Read the full statement below.

“The event was an open affair, which allowed members of the public to attend, including the clergymen and some others now being derided by hirelings of the opposition.

“We want to say that those clergymen were not fake, not mechanics or yam sellers as the purveyors of hatred have made Nigerians believe in the social media. They are not big names in Christendom yet, they are gradually building up their missions.

“They are church leaders who genuinely believe that Nigerians must eschew politics of hatred and religious bigotry and rather embrace politics of peace and nation building.

“We, therefore, deplore the hysterical twisting of the presence of these men and women in cassocks and the false accusation against our candidates, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Shettima.

“The orchestrated social media sensation over the presence of the men is needless and all calculated to detract from the huge success recorded at the momentous event on Wednesday.

“We believe Nigerians are too wise and discerning to see through this shenanigan. Asiwaju Tinubu and his running mate and our great party are working very hard to provide purposeful leadership and good progressive governance that will improve the quality of life of Nigerians.

“We are well aware that the opposition parties and the sponsors of the social media charade are jittery and threatened by the intimidating political credentials of our candidates. The only way they hope to shift the attention of public scrutiny away from their uninspiring candidates and credentials is to create social media distraction.

“Our campaign is determined on focusing on core governance issues that affect all Nigerians to confront them and make the desired improvements in the standard of living of our people.”