…Let them provide evidence, Gado replies

By SAM EYOBOKA, CALEB AYANSINA & CHIAMAKA AJEAMO

ABUJA – Patriotic Christian Youths of Nigeria (PCYN), has accused the former aspirant in the just concluded Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) presidential election, Rev. Jeremiah Gado, of sponsoring division in the national Christian body after his defeat.

A recent media report (not Vanguard) had it that north-ern Christians under the aegis of the Concerned Christians of Nigeria and the Northern Nigerian Christians have pulled out of CAN over allegations of corruption as well as neglect of northern Christians especially in the North-East.

President of PCYN, Evang. Simon Timothy Nasso said the two groups, reported to have pulled out of CAN had never been affiliates of CAN, and that, they were being sponsored by Rev. Gado.

But when contacted, Rev. Gado denied sponsoring the groups behind the purported pull out, saying he does not have money for such sponsor-ship.

Nasso, in a statement signed in Abuja, maintained that “we know as a fact that Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Gado has not been himself since his amb-ition to become the National President of CAN failed to materialize hence he has resolved to spend the unspent money he obtained during the campaign to become the president of CAN.

“He has forgotten that men may fall for his money but God has the final say with regards to who becomes the president of CAN. It is surprising that Dr. Gado is not contented that God gave him the rare privilege of becom-ing the president of ECWA despite his inexperience and understanding of the Niger-ian Church leadership since his return from abroad.

“As an organization, we monitored closely the just concluded election of CAN and know as a fact that no nominated candidate was denied the opportunity to contest. The elections of the current leadership of CAN followed due process and every bloc in CAN was given an opportunity to produce a candidate for the presidency as provided in the CAN Constitution.

“There is no group known to CAN and Nigerian Christ-ians as Concerned Christians of Nigeria and Northern Nigeria Christians. They are one and the same group formation with same founder (Rev. Gado) same gospel (gospel of hate and must lead by force) and same evang-elists (men of questionable characters).

“For the avoidance of doubt, CAN is a registered umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria whose members are drawn from church groups and constituted into blocs form-ing the body of CAN. CAN, as a body, does not register individuals or organizations unless they come under one of the five blocs hence it is complete falsehood, mis-representation and mis-chievous, the propaganda that a group in CAN has broken up.

“We challenge the two so called leaders of the Dr Jeremiah Gado-founded groups to tell the Press with evidence any official meeting of CAN that they have ever attended, be it at their Local Government, State, Zonal or National levels,” the statement added.

Reacting to the allegation, Gado described it as nonsense, stating that rather than him sponsoring CCN and NNC, it was CAN that has been sponsoring surroga-tes with a view to giving good people a bad name.

“Let them provide the evi-dence. That is nonsense. It is nonsense! I don’t have the money. They have the money and they are the people sponsoring the PCYN. I cannot sponsor anybody now, I don’t have the money to sponsor anybody. It is nonsense.

“It all shows you the kind of leadership that is being provided by CAN. They have been hiring surrogates to try and give good people a bad name. No! No! No! Let them give you the evidence”, he fumed.