The National Vice Chairman, All Progressive Congress (APC), Southwest, Isaac Kekemeke, has said the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was neither aware nor endorsed the defection of Adebayo Adelabu from the APC to Accord Party.
Apparently reacting to a statement by Adelabu, who recently got the Accord Party governorship ticket, the former Ondo State chairman said it was never in the character of the APC national leader to endorse or support defection from the party.
He spoke while fielding questions from reporters after the Zonal Executive Committee meeting of the Southwest held yesterday at the Oyo State APC secretariat, Oke Ado, Ibadan.
He said the party’s candidate known by the state, zonal and national leadership of the party remained Senator Teslim Folarin.
Kekemeke said it was unthinkable for anyone to say Asiwaju Tinubu would support another governorship aspirant in the state.
He said: “That he (Adebayo Adelabu) got the nod of Asiwaju Tinubu to move to Accord Party cannot be true. It is a false assertion, it can’t happen, it will never happen. Asiwaju Tinubu is the presidential candidate of our party and the only candidate known to the party in Oyo State at the national and zonal level is Senator Folarin. No other candidate.”
“Can you hear yourself and can anyone saying that hear himself that the presidential candidate of our party, the national leader of our party will support another candidate in another party? This is not possible, it cannot happen and it didn’t happen. It is a lie. A big lie, a fat lie, it is not possible.”
On Muslim-Muslim ticket, Kekemeke said what Nigerians yearned for was a pan-Nigeria president and not of religion.
“Let me just say this for the umpteenth time that what the APC is looking for is a pro-Nigerian president. A Nigerian president that will tackle insecurity, a Nigerian president that will tackle poverty, a Nigerian president that will tackle the economy, that will provide jobs for our youths, that will create happiness, that will recreate and reinvent Nigeria. This is what is important.
“We are not trying to look for the leader of the church or the leader of faith in Nigeria. I think this must have been clear by now. I am a Christian and I know many Christians. We are happy with CAN, it is right for them to agitate.
“But, as members of CAN, we are not concerned and bothered about whether the ticket is Christian-Christian, Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Muslim. We are bothered about a Nigerian president and I think it is high time we went beyond all these. We are happy with CAN, but we are not with CAN”, he added.