Pastor Tunde Bakare, the general overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, previously Latter Rain Assembly, has refuted rumors that he has endorsed Bola Tinubu for president of the All Progressives Congress.
Additionally, Pastor Bakare refuted allegations that he criticized the Christian Association of Nigeria for speaking out against the APC’s decision to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential election and the contentious appearance of “clergymen” at Kashim Shettima’s announcement as the party’s vice presidential candidate.
In a Friday statement headed “Refutal: The words imputed to me are pure lies,” Pastor Bakare responded to the allegations.
He referred to the claims made about him as “concocted and ludicrous” and blamed them on “unscrupulous journalists and bloggers.”
According to Pastor Bakare, “Amongst other things, I was quoted to have said that the agitations by the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, were ploys by the opposition party, PDP, to force a weak candidate on APC. In addition to this, I was alleged to have said that CAN wanted to lure APC into presenting a weak candidate.
“The spurious writers also alleged that I stressed that Christians are righteous people who behave like Christ, and that CAN are politicians who behave like PDP.
“As if the poorly strewn lies were not enough, I was quoted as saying that Tinubu is my candidate.”
Pastor Bakare, who unsuccessfully ran for the APC presidential nomination, disputed the logic behind the assertion that he had supported the party’s nominee for president, whom he had openly rejected during the party’s primary.
“Isn’t this the same Tinubu that I announced to all and sundry at the APC Presidential Convention that I was not stepping down for? He has suddenly become my candidate!” he said.
The preacher urged the general populace to ignore the purported words because they were not said by him and did not reflect his views. He also demanded that anyone who has proof that he had said the things that were attributed to him make it public.
“I wish to state unequivocally that the statements are absolute lies. There was nowhere I granted anyone any interview, or preached on any platform, where I said the ludicrous statements,” he said. “I challenge anyone who is in possession of the video or audio file of the statements to please put it in the public space.”
He added, “For the avoidance of doubt, I am a nation builder who will not in any way create real or imaginary division among the people of our great country, through the medium of political parties or religion.”
