Christian delegates to the National Conference on Wednesday denied a report in a national daily that they accused a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the Conference, Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi of promoting Islamic prayers on the first day of plenary.
The delegates said the contributions of the Serving Overseer of the Lagos-based Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare and Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) did not represent the views of Christian delegates.
A joint statement by the six delegates entitled: “Misleading media report on conference – Re: Christian delegates accuse leadership of bias” said they “did not find anything unusual in the comments or conduct of the said personalities at the conference to be clothed with the cloak of controversy and contention as the reports seek to do”.
The statement reads: “The attention of the ‘Christian Leaders’ delegation to the national conference has been drawn to misleading media reports on the goings on at the national conference.
“A national Newspaper of instant date has this caption: ‘Conference in shocking start: Christian delegates accuse leadership of bias’. This was in apparent reference to the contributions of Pastor Tunde Bakare, who introduced himself as a Nigerian on the delegation of Ogun State and Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), who humorously introduced himself as ‘a Federal Government Addendum’ delegate.
“None of these two eminent Nigerians represent Christians at the ongoing Confab. For clarity and avoidance of doubt, the Christian delegates to the Confab are J. D Bagobiri, J. A Achimugu, Andrew Haruna, Kate Okpareke, Emmanuel Olatubosun and Godswill Iyoha Iyoke”.
While stressing that “none of our six-member delegation made any contribution on the floor of the conference or on those issues under reference”, the Christian delegates said they are therefore worried as to “how clear unambiguous introductions and contributions by others” could be attributed to them.
