Osinbajo lost in the primary election to former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu who won the ticket.
Some members of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo's team are still furious about the outcome of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary, SaharaReporters has gathered.
Osinbajo lost in the primary election to former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu who won the ticket.
Before the primary, which was concluded in June, there were speculations over the relationship between the duo.
Considering that Osinbajo served during the Tinubu administration when the latter was governor of Lagos, many believed he shouldn’t have indicated an interest in contesting the presidency with his former boss.
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In May, Tinubu claimed he nominated Osinbajo as President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in 2015 as part of the political bargaining that led to the formation of the APC.
However, SaharaReporters learnt on Wednesday that members of the Vice President’s camp were not happy over the recent meeting between Tinubu and the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye.
Daily Post, ThisDay and some other media platforms had reported that Bola Tinubu met with Pastor Adeboye on Sunday at the Redemption Camp, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Tinubu’s meeting with Adeboye was said to have been centred around his decision to settle for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
It was also reported that Tinubu’s wife, Senator Oluremi, who is a deputy pastor with RCCG, among others, was part of the meeting.
Tinubu, a Muslim, had announced a fellow Muslim, Kashim Shettima, a former Borno governor as his running mate. This has been condemned by many Christians and some Muslims.
But the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) on Tuesday issued a disclaimer, saying that its General Overseer, Pastor Adeboye will not endorse any candidate for the 2023 general elections, asking the public to disregard the reports.
But the disclaimer did not deny that there was a meeting as it carefully left out whether there was a meeting between Adeboye and Tinubu or not.
The statement from the Church said: "It has come to our notice that some news outlets are reporting that a meeting Between Pastor E.A. Adeboye: The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God Worldwide and the former Governor of Lagos State Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu was held few days back at the Redemption Camp where our esteemed father in the Lord was said to have supported the preferred candidature of the Party the Former Governor is a member of.
"This is to inform the general public that 1) Pastor E.A. Adeboye is under the authority of God, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), and as such will not speak on behalf of Christians on issues regarding policies.
"2) Pastor E.A. Adeboye and the RCCG have not and will not endorse any candidate for the 2023 General elections in Nigeria.
"3) The news reported by Daily Post is false. Daily Post and other News Outlets should desist from spreading false information about Pastor E.A. Adeboye and the RCCG as it defeats the code and ethics of Journalism and the full weight of the law will be employed if such happens in future.
"God bless you."
It was learnt that the church had accused Tinubu's camp of leaking information about the meeting to the media, saying it did not come from them.
A source privy to the happenings on Wednesday also told SaharaReporters that indeed Osinbajo's camp was still furious about the APC presidential primary election he lost to Tinubu and was not happy about the recent meeting between the former Lagos governor and the leader of Osinbajo's church, Adeboye.
"They are not happy that Pastor Adeboye met with Tinubu secretly. According to the Osinbajo camp, it was Tinubu’s media team that first leaked the secret meeting between Tinubu and Pastor Adeboye to ThisDay newspaper where some of them used to work as journalists," the source said.
Another source noted that "Tinubu's camp strategically chose ThisDay to leak the information so it will not be linked to them".
"Tinubu has media houses like The Nation and TVC but leaking it through them would have made it obvious it came from them so they chose ThisDay where some members of his team used to work and have contacts," the source said.