The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has denied being under any form of pressure to congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari on his victory at last month’s presidential election.
CAN said that, as a religious group, it remains apolitical and would congratulate and rejoice with whoever the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared winner of the fiercely contested poll.
A source within the national leadership of CAN had, in a recorded conversation, told Vanguard that some influential persons in government are unrelenting in their persuasion for the Church to pay the President a congratulatory visit.
However, CAN President, Revd. Samson Ayokunle, in a statement on Thursday by his media aide, Bayo Oladeji, dismissed the report, saying there’s no such pressures mounted on the Church from any quarters.
The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to a story suggesting that we are under pressure to congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari on his reelection.
“There was no iota of truth in the story. There was no pressure whatsoever from any quarter on the leadership of the Association to congratulate Mr. President on his victory in the recently held Presidential poll.
“It is a normal thing for CAN to rejoice and to congratulate whoever wins the Presidential poll in the country because of its political neutrality. We have been doing this before. We did it in 2015 and we are wondering why it has to be different this year.”
