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Kaduna Christian Association Rejects Oritsejafor’s Successor’s Kangaroo Election

The Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) today declared their rejection of a kangaroo election held last week to pick a successor for CAN’s erstwhile national president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.  

SaharaReporters reported extensively on plans by Pastor Oritsejafor and his cronies to rig the elections in favor of candidates who would not probe the controversial former president’s tenure. Pastor Oritsejafor had systematically excluded some candidates whom he classified as agents of jihadists and President Muhammadu Buhari. 

After the questionable elections, the outgoing CAN president had declared that Reverend Samson Ayokunle had won the election by polling 57 votes, with Elder Joseph Otubu winning 28 votes. Both men are believed to be puppets of the outgoing president. 

101 people were expected to vote, but the results announced by the former CAN leader showed that only 85 votes were cast. 

In a widely circulated online interview with BBC Hausa Service, Pastor Sunday Ibrahim, the secretary of the Kaduna State chapter of CAN, distanced his chapter from Pastor Oritsejafor’s plot. “They just go and do something, and they called it election. They should fear God because it was not the election, and we are not part of it and [we] distanced ourselves. We are calling on the national leadership in the name of God to call people again because it is not an election,” Pastor Ibrahim stated. 

He added: “Every association has rules and regulations and our own was not followed. No matter what you did, if it is not in line with [the] Constitution, it is not [an] election. The election will not stand because it has no foundation in truth and sincerity. It’s purely a selfish issue contrary to the rules guiding election of the association. From the beginning to the end, the rules of election in CAN were never applied.”

The spokesman of the Kaduna State chapter of CAN explained that the association has an electoral college and permits all members to aspire to lead and also to vote. He added, “but in this case there was a person that was vehemently denied the right to participate without justifiable reason. We are appealing to them to fear God and remember that we will all die and give account to Almighty God.”

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