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The media space became slippery when a petition addressed to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)’s president allegedly written by one Pastor Frank Onwumere and dated December 15, 2022, claimed that mega churches shared the sum of N2 billion donated by Peter Obi while other churches were callously sidelined.
The petitioner said the money was a largesse from the Labour Party presidential candidate.
In the wake of the widespread, CAN on Sunday revealed that it is not connected to the alleged N2 billion and said it would probe the source of the petition that cooked the allegation.
Pastor Frank Onwumere’s name appeared on the petition. AllNews Nigeria contacted the cleric, who denied engineering any petition.
“I have received a torrent of calls on this matter. I can tell you that I did not issue the petition”, he told AllNews Nigeria’s politics desk.
“I don’t know anything about it (petition). I am also looking for the writer and haven't found it. I don’t even own a church. I have never met Peter Obi before.
“Apart from seeing Obi on the television screen, I have never had any private meeting with him.
"I will address a press conference on Monday (today) to address this issue. My enemies are behind this forgery of my name and phone number.”
CAN President Archbishop Daniel Okoh said that the religious-based organisation did not receive any money from the LP 2023 presidential candidate.
The cleric made the rebuttal via a statement titled, ‘Re: Petition on the misappropriation of N2bn given by the presidential candidate of Labour party, Mr Peter Obi, to churches under the umbrella of CAN’.
The letter reads: “The attention of the national leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria has been drawn to a purported letter currently in circulation on social media, alleging that a certain sum of N2bn was given by the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, to churches under the umbrella of CAN.
“I use this medium to categorically state that the so-called letter of petition reportedly signed by one Pastor Frank Onwumere and addressed to my office is illogical and can best be described as a failed attempt to drag the apex Christian body into the politics of 2023.
"However, we will investigate the source of the letter in the public’s interest."
He said he is not unaware of any money given to the churches to mobilise votes for any 2023 presidential candidate and did not also receive the said petition.
He added that the group is non-partisan and will neither endorse nor mobilise support for any candidate in the upcoming elections.
In a statement on Sunday, the Head of Media, Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign, Diran Boniface, stated that the petition is the handiwork of the opposition trying desperately to discredit the party’s presidential candidate.
“Recall that on February 6, 2023, the Obi-Datti Media Office, acting on credible intelligence, alerted the nation to a grand design to fatally injure the rising political profile of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, with what they called a ‘killer punch’ propaganda material.
“We hinted that the so-called ‘killer punch’ will come in various forms, including but not limited to a documentary portraying Obi in different harmful lights."
AllNews Nigeria also contacted the National Secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Farouk, who insisted that the LP presidential candidate had never distributed money to any religious group in exchange for political support.
“It is a well-scripted white lie. There is no iota of truth in that report.
"Instead of Peter Obi giving out money, it is even the people contributing to support his campaign. It is the figment of the imagination of the writer.
“We suspect the opposition is the brain behind this fake news, which is very unfortunate. They have been trying to bring us down".
CAN in Imo State also told journalists that the address in the petition by the aggrieved church does not exist.
AllNews Nigeria contacted Nuru Ibeto, a public affairs analyst in Sokoto State, for comments.
He said CAN must investigate to fish out the perpetrators and purveyors of the fake news.
“As much as the concerned group has debunked the claim, it is not enough.
"We need to nationally investigate to find out who did what and avert future religious and political misrepresentation”, he charged.
To Ibeto, if everyone takes the matter as the usual propaganda and political bullet, we are building a self-crashing political culture that will come back to haunt the country and its democracy.
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