The choice of presidential candidate in the 2023 elections has divided the ranks of the Northern Christian Leaders Forum.

Major Christian leaders have distanced themselves from the decision of chairman of the Forum and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, to endorse Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s Presidential Candidate.

Lawal had earlier on Thursday endorsed Obi as the group’s preferred candidate for 2023 polls.

The Lawal-led group who are mainly members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima.

In a statement released in Abuja, Lawal said that the group comprising some Northern Christian politicians settled for Obi, after a painstaking review and analysis of the alternative presidential ticket holders.

But former Speaker of the House of Representatives and other leaders, in another statement, disowned Obi’s choice.

In a statement signed by Dogara, HE, Simon Achuba, Hon. Albert Atiwurcha, Prof. Doknan Sheni, Mela A. Nunge (SAN), Gen Ishaya Bauka (rtd), Prof Ibrahim Haruna and Mrs Leah Olusiyi, the group said nobody was authorised to speak on their choice for 2023 polls.

The leaders said they would announce their choice at an inter-faith event soon.

The statement read: “We want to draw the attention of the general public to the recent position canvassed by our Chairman, Engr. B D Lawal as the position of our Group. We wish to state that necessary consultations have been concluded, and based on manifestly unassailable empirical data, the group is poised to adopt a position which will be made known to the public at an interfaith event to be held very soon.

“Suffices to say that no one in the group including the Chairman has been mandated to speak to the public about our position at this material time. Based on our modus operandi, our position was meant to be presented to the general public at the event above referred to. That has not changed.

“Consequently, the decision to endorse a particular candidate and the statement credited to the chairman are solely the decision and views of the chairman which he is absolutely entitled to but not that of the group.

“We hope this statement clears all the queries most of us have been inundated with on this all-important subject matter.”

Meanwhile, besides endorsing Obi and Ahmed Datti, the Lawal-led group recommended LP candidates to Nigerians, saying they would ensure justice, equity, fairness and unity of the country.

Lawal said: “As one of the foremost critics of APC’s single-faith presidential ticket and also in difference to those who have patiently waited for our guidance as to where to pitch our tent, after a painstaking review and analysis of the alternative presidential tickets, we now wish to recommend the Obi/Datti presidential ticket.

“We wish to briefly narrate some few reasons among many, why we have endorsed this ticket and recommend it to all Nigerians of good conscience who desire justice, equity and a harmonious co-existence of all Nigerians across tribes, religion and geopolitical regions.

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“It is an indisputable fact that the whole of Northern Nigeria is currently mired in several intractable socio-economic problems, due to the activities of several nebulous criminal groups.

“Agriculture, the mainstay of the northern economy, is all but abandoned because kidnappers and bandits have prevented people from venturing out of the safety of their homes,” he said.

Lawal also decried the lack of safety in interstate and intercity travels for either business or leisure.

He said this was not only due to un-motorable roads but for fear of attacks by criminals such as kidnappers, armed robbery and bandits.

“In our quest for justice and equity in the socio-political and religious space of the country, it is obvious that only the Obi/Datti ticket has the potential to deliver.”

He said that the Obi/Datti ticket can speak on the genuine clamour for power shift to the South-East as well as the cry of marginalisation by people of the South-East.”

The Star