2023 elections: Mega church denies backing ‘any aspirant’ as APC knocks ‘Obi-dient movement’

• Lawyers sue INEC, AGF, and others, seek disqualification of Atiku, Tinubu, Obi
• Northern politicians dump NRM, allege marginalisation by South
• Yiaga, NBA to offer legal services as election petitions hit 3,959 in 16 years

The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries has refuted claims on social media that its General Overseer, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, and the church are supporting a particular political party and its aspirant.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by Public Relations Director, Pastor Louis Chidi.

The statement reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to publications on some social media platforms attributed to our General Overseer, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, which were meant to portray him and the Church, the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries, as politically inclined with sympathy for a particular political party and its aspirant.

“We wish to state without equivocation that neither our General Overseer nor the Church has ever made any political statement in support of, or against any person or party, and have no cause to be involved in politics.

“We, therefore, wish to state categorically that such publication or view does not emanate from our General Overseer. Rather, it’s the enemy that has done that (according to Matthew 13:24-30).

“The Lord’s Chosen, hereby, disassociates itself and the General Overseer from such improper and divisive statements.”

THIS came as the All Progressives Congress (APC) said the growing number of youth groups supporting the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, does not threaten its electoral chances.

The support groups tagged: ‘Obi-dient’, is currently making waves on social media.

APC’s National Youth Leader, Dayo Israel, described the development as a ruse.

He spoke, yesterday, during the inauguration of a national task force for the registration and revalidation of youth-based support groups at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.

He said the Obi-dient movement wouldn’t stop APC’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, from sweeping the 2023 poll, adding that the decision by the Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee to inaugurate the support groups is aimed at achieving the goal.

Israel said: “The lion is not threatened by the noise of the rat. You must understand that we have continued to play our part and the youth wing of the party has continued to rise to the occasion.

“While we are not threatened or sitting on our hands, we are taking responsibility. That is why we have this crop of young people who are passionate about change. We believe that the future of the party belongs to us. That is why we have co-opted all of these dynamic gentlemen to come together.”

ALSO, three Abuja-based lawyers have dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before a Federal High Court, seeking an order restraining the electoral body from accepting the nomination of Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar (Peoples Democratic Party) and Peter Obi as presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections.

The suit filed yesterday argues that Tinubu, Atiku and Obi were unlawfully nominated by their respective political parties.

Plaintiffs in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1004/2022, are Ataguba Aboje, Oghenovo Otemu and Ahmed Yusuf.

No date has been fixed for the hearing.

Apart from INEC, other defendants are the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), APC, PDP and LP.

The plaintiffs are contending that APC, PDP and LP contravened provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022, in the conduct of primaries that produced their presidential candidates.

They contend that the parties flouted the law by their failure to nominate vice presidential candidates before the conduct of primaries as required by law.

FRESH crisis appears to be rocking the National Rescue Movement (NRM) as northern politicians leave the party over alleged marginalisation by their southern counterparts.

The politicians alleged they were not being carried along in the party’s decision-making process.

NRM’s Deputy National Chairman (North), Abubakar Jikamshi, who announced his defection from the party at a media briefing in Abuja, yesterday, revealed that the majority of the National Working Committee members are from the southeast.

He recalled that the party’s convention and primarily held in March and June produced the National Chairman, Isaac Chigozie Udeh, and the presidential candidate, Okwudili Nwa-Anyajike, who are both from the southeast.

Jikamshi, who is a former candidate in the 2019 Katsina State governorship race, said the development portrays the party as undemocratic.

He told journalists that many national officers from the north have left the party and are currently consulting on the next line of action.

He said: “I was one of the founding members of this party and we were more than 50 in number. But as of today, before I announced my resignation, only three of us were still in the party, as the rest have left because of the way the party was being run.”

MEANWHILE, Yiaga Africa and the Nigerian Bar Association Young Lawyers Forum (NBA-YLF) have offered to provide pro bono legal services to young adults during the general elections.

The service, according to both bodies, will also be extended to other young persons with disabilities who require legal advice.

A statement signed by Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, and Chairman, Young Lawyers Forum, Muntasir Adamu, recalled that 3,193 election petitions were filed in the general elections conducted between 2003 and 2015, adding that an additional 766 petitions were filed in the 2019 general elections, bringing the total petitions filed to 3,959.