Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Lagos State, Stephen Adegbite, has said that he endorsed the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his personal capacity and never on behalf of the Christian umbrella body.

In a statement, yesterday, his Special Adviser (Media, Public Relations and Strategic Communications), Oladapo Daramola, noted that Adegbite was not speaking on behalf of Christians or as Chairman of CAN in Lagos, adding that the Bishop is quite mindful of his position of trust as the leader of Christians in the state and would never speak loosely or anything close to that.

The statement, titled ‘Misleading Statement Credited to Lagos State CAN Chairman’ reads: “Dearly beloved, it’s quite possible that you have read a story published by Blueprint Newspaper, a national daily, where the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Lagos State, Rt. Rev. (Dr.) S.T.V. Adegbite, was quoted as saying ‘God will punish us if we don’t support Tinubu – Lagos CAN.’ I can reliably inform you that this headline is not only misleading but totally out of context. This is not a damage control but setting the records straight.

“As a trained journalist, the first thing I did was to look at the by-line and in doing so, I realised the story was lifted from an online media platform called Trek Africa Media. So, it wasn’t a report that came from Blueprint Newspaper, but one they published with some recklessness.”

According to Daramola, the Bishop went down memory lane at a programme organised for Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the lawmaker representing Lagos Central Senatorial District, somewhere in Lagos over the weekend and while reminiscing, he spoke about how his personal relationship with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has grown over the last 23 years and what the former Lagos State Governor has done for Christianity in Lagos State.