SAN FRANCISCO, October 15, (THEWILL) – The current Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Mathew Hassan Kukah; the general overseer of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, also known as Winners’ Chapel, Dr. David Oyedepo; and Prominent Kaduna-based Islamic scholar, Ahmad Gumi, have all declared they weren’t part of the endorsement of Atiku Abubakar for presidency in 2019.
The clergymen made this known as they explained their role in the October 11 meeting in Abeokuta that culminated in the historic reconciliation of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his former deputy, Atiku, followed by an endorsement of the PDP flagbearer by Obasanjo.
In a detailed and lengthy statement, Kukah said he only facilitated the reconciliation between the two men, and that he was not part of the subsequent event which saw Obasanjo endorsing Abubakar for the 2019 presidential election.
The bishop also explained how he initiated the reconciliation moves and how he worked hard to be a neutral, non-partisan facilitator in the entire process and left before the endorsement adding that he rejected favours from Obasanjo and Atiku.
“I was not in Abeokuta to endorse Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. I perfectly understand the feelings of many of my friends and members of the opposition who believe that I travelled with Alhaji Abubakar and his team to attend his endorsement by President Obasanjo, but I reiterate that this was not the case,” he stated.
Another cleric at the event, Sheikh Gumi, had also explained his role at the meeting saying he was invited because he was an apolitical scholar.
Gumi said part of the criteria the conveners of the meeting looked at was the fact that “he speaks his minds and criticises any political party in government when it does wrong to Nigerians.”
He also said he accepted to attend the gathering because it has to do with reconciliation between two aggrieved persons “which Islam encourages”.
”When a Muslim hears of anything that will lead to reconciliation between people, it is good for someone to attend if invited.
“Whoever does that Allah will reward him. Most especially if leaders are said to reconcile, if we fail to attend, we have betrayed the religion,” he said.
On his part, Oyedepo, while giving his Sunday sermon titled: “Covenant day of open doors” said he does not belong to any party insisting his goal is to secure a glorious destiny for Nigeria.
“I have never belonged to any political party and will never belong to one. Wherever parties you are in, that is where I am in. There is no party without winners in it, if you get to any party and you don’t see any winner in it, you better check out of there, even the one that have not being formed winners are there,” he said.
“Our goal is to secure the glorious destiny of our nation by paying whatever price it require. I have never taken any dime from any political candidate in my life, I am a mediator. The price of peace is far cheaper than the cost of war so what we are saying is let us talk this over don’t let us exchange blows.
“Let us be mature and be sincere, let’s give chance to reason and let the wicked turn from their wicked ways. We have to do it by appealing to people’s reasoning. Does anybody here want to see war? The 30 months war we fought, the effect keeps lingering, you won’t see war again in the name of Jesus.”
