Bishop Naga Mohammed, Borno State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN has debunked viral reports on the social media that he had supported the choice of a former governor of Borno State, Kashim Ibrahim Shettima by the All Progressives Congress, APC as the running mate to its presidential flag bearer in the 2023 election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Tinubu, on Saturday unveiled the former Borno helmsman as his running mate while he paid a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari in his Daura, Katsina home.
The announcement has been greeted with mixed reactions from Nigerians, with some supporters of the APC claiming that Bishop Mohammed had backed Shitima’s candidacy. The bishop has now denied the report, saying the statement being quoted was made few years ago.
According to him, he neither granted any interview to any journalist nor issued any press statement to that effect.
Mohammed told The PUNCH, that the story which had gone viral was taken from what he said in 2017 when Boko Haram was devastating Borno State at a time when Shettima was the governor.
According to him, “I have not granted an interview to anybody and never issued any statement. Was it not yesterday (Sunday) they said they had appointed him (Shettima)? How come I granted interview at the APC secretariat?
“Nobody called me. No journalist called me, except when this thing happened, when the papers were carrying it viral, then people were calling me.
“Right now, I’m somehow angry and not even composed to talk very well. The story they are carrying was in 2017 when Boko Haram was devastating Borno when Kashim Shettima was the governor.
“They picked that story and I, being CAN chairman, they now levelled it against me. I am just framed up and I don’t even have trust speaking with journalists, including you, because I don’t know what else you will write,” Bishop Mahammed said.
