Presidency 2023: Tinubu fires back at Omokri, bishops at APC unveiling of Shettima not fake  

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has fired back at Reno Omokri and others, denying that his campaign team hired ‘bishop’ to attend the unveiling of his running mate, Kashim Shettima, in Abuja on Wednesday, to register Christians presence. Tinubu declared that the bishops at the APC unveiling of the vice presidential candidate on Wednesday were not fake.

Tinubu in a statement by the Director of Media and Communication of his Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, asserted that the unveiling of the APC vice presidential candidate 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.

The APC presidential candidate decried that the viral pictures and videos of the clergymen and women was “unwarranted distractions” by political opponents.

The statement read: “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, but 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.

“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, 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.

“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.

He reiterated his commitment to tackling the problems facing the nation and improving the standard of living of every citizen.

“Our campaign is determined on focusing on core governance issues that affect all Nigerians with a view to confronting them and making the desired improvements in the standard of living of our people.

“We believe Nigerians are too wise and discerning to see through these shenanigans. 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.”

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The APC leadership unveiled Senator Kassim Shettima, representing Borno Central in the National Assembly, as the vice presidential candidate to Tinubu for the 2023 general elections at the Shehu Yar’adua Centre, Abuja.

The presence of the controversial bishops precipitated sudden disquiet because of the protest of the Muslim-Muslim joint ticket of Tinubu and Shettima by the Christian believers.

Reno Omokri has accused the Tinubu Campaign Organization of hiring the bishops, who he described as fake or unknown ‘bishops’.