Pastor apologises to CAN over alleged N7 billion from Jonathan

Less than one year after he accused former President Goodluck Jonathan, of giving N7 billion to the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), to facilitate and support his reelection, the Executive Director of the Voice of Northern Christian Movement (VNCM), Kallamu Musa Dikwa, has apologized for his action.
Pastor Bosun Emmanuel who made the claim yesterday in a statement in Abuja alleged that, “It is not impossible that some clerics collected money to campaign for politicians on both sides during the elections. That could have happened amongst Muslim clerics and Christian clergy. But, this N7 billion story is hogwash. I can say categorically that I have never collected a kobo from a politician or government official in my life to do Christian ministry. Musa Dikwa LIED against me, but thank God, he confessed.

It would be recalled that during the electioneering campaign leading to the 2015 elections, Musa Dikwa addressed a press conference in which he claimed three ministers of the gospel, received N7 billion from the Jonathan administration to mobilise ministers of the gospel nationwide to campaign for his re-election.

According to Bosun Emmanuel, “The story was started by the former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi who claimed the sum of N6 billion was given to pastors to campaign for Jonathan’s re-election. It was the story of Amaechi that Musa Dikwa latched on to and insisted that it was not N6 billion but N7 billion and proceeded to mention the names of the three ministers of the gospel. As we could recall, Rotimi Amaechi was the Director of the Campaign for the election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, now President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said, “We met Musa Dikwa personally in Jos on Wednesday 12th August, 2015. I sat directly facing him for almost three hours and Musa Dikwa did not know he was talking to the pastor he lied against. We were interested in finding out, “were you there when the money was being shared”? No, he was not.

“Was the money shared in Naira?” “No, it was in dollars”. It was the conversion that made it N7b. “So, if you were not there, how did you know money was being shared and the purpose for which it was shared?” He was informed by a CAN official in Abuja who told him to come quickly and collect his own share.

“Ironically, the CAN official Musa Dikwa mentioned as the informant was also one of the people who got Musa Dikwa arrested by DSS for carrying the unsubstantiated story, and the same man is also one of the five respondents in the N300 million suit of Musa Dikwa against Department of States Services (DSS). (He gave us photocopies) The big question is, if the man Musa mentioned as the source of the N7 billion Naira story is truly the source, why would the same man invite DSS to arrest him, and why would Musa join the man as a respondent in a N300 million lawsuit? Musa Dikwa claimed that the DSS violated his Human Rights by arresting him.

“Now, see who is heading for court? What right does he have to complain of the violation of his rights? What if I should sue Musa Dikwa N500 million for defamation of character?

“Anyway, he apologised for including the name of Pastor Bosun Emmanuel in the story and even assured us that he would call another Press Conference to clear Pastor Bosun. So far, he has not done that. The implication is that even the inclusion of CAN President and Bishop Oyedepo in the campaign of calumny could also be false.

“The following day, 13th August, 2015, Musa came again to meet us at our lodging and disclosed the name of the person who specifically instructed him to include my name. He mentioned the name of one of the APC Pastors based in Lagos. So it became clear what happened. My name was included to discredit the WAKE UP CALL CD, while, (I think) Bishop Oyedepo was included because he came out openly to declare support for Jonathan and the President of CAN was mentioned to divide the church. It was a classical APC campaign by deception”, Emmanuel added.