[size=18pt]2011: Count us out of zoning, consensus candidate controversies – Northern CAN
[/size]
By SEGUN OLATUNJI

Sunday, 14 Nov 2010
 


The Christian Association of Nigeria in the North on Saturday in Kaduna warned that it should not be dragged into the zoning and northern consensus presidential candidate controversies currently rocking the Peoples Democratic Party.

CAN said since it had no business with the politics of zoning now threatening to tear the PDP apart, it should be spared any insinuations of being involved in the plan to come up with a consensus candidate to compete against President Goodluck Jonathan for the presidential ticket at the party‘s primaries.

The body also denied setting up or being part of any committee that would ensure the emergence of a northern candidate in 2011.

The Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum had last Wednesday met for some hours with some leaders of the CAN from the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory to solicit their support for the northern consensus candidate project.

But in a statement signed by the Secretary of the Kaduna State chapter of the association, Rev. Joseph Hayab, and made available to newsmen in Kaduna, CAN said although it was working in collaboration with other religious bodies to ensure the emergence of a leader who would be loved by all in 2011, it had nothing to do with the zoning controversy and the consensus candidate issue now troubling the PDP.

The group, therefore, dissociated itself from a statement credited to one of its officials (name withheld) who claimed on the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation that CAN had decided to back a northern president after its recent meeting with the Ciroma committee in Kaduna.

CAN, Hayab said, would not be involved in partisan politics, adding that the body would continue to maintain its neutrality as an apolitical religious organisation conscious of its role in national development, integration and peaceful co-existence.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201011141231212