The Borno State-based pastor, Kallamu Musa-Dikwa, who accused the leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, of collecting N7 billion from President Goodluck Jonathan to campaign against the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate in the March 28 election, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has insisted that the Christian body collected the said amount.
Speaking in Kaduna on Tuesday, Pastor Musa-Dikwa insisted that the Jonathan-government gave N7bn to CAN to support his re-election bid.
He, however, pointed out that neither Jonathan, who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party nor Buhari was fit to govern the country.
The cleric, who came under fire from the CAN leadership for making the allegation, said the religious body was being economical with the truth by the denial, adding that he used to be part and parcel of the association.
He said he parted ways with the national body of the CAN when in 2013, some clerics from the United States (Christian Association of Nigeria-Americans), visited Nigeria and donated $50,000 to the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State.
He explained that rather than the CAN to disburse the money to serve the purpose it was meant for, the victims were only given a paltry N100,000.
On the N7bn bribe money, Musa-Dikwa, who said he traveled all the way from Borno to Kaduna to further substantiate his claims, played a recorded audio of someone confirming that CAN had collected the money before journalists.
According to him, when Rivers State Governor and Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Organization, Rotimi Amaechi first accused the clerics of collecting bribe to campaign against Buhari, “I sent a text (message) to the leadership of the CAN to repent or be exposed”.
He said since he opened the can of worms, he had received several threat messages from yet-to-be identified persons, who claimed that “I am against Christians and working for the All Progressives Congress Presidential candidate”.
Musa-Dikwa noted that the leadership of the CAN claimed “they didn’t know me” and that he was working for the APC because he decided to say the truth.
He added that since the revelation, many of the CAN members had called him to say the “allegation” was true and that they collected the money.
Pressed further by journalists to disclose his source, the pastor, who is the Executive Director of the Voice of Northern Christian Movement, simply said an “insider” in the CAN told him that the said money was collected on January 26, 2015.
He said, ”There was no newspaper or news coverage of the disbursement of the N7bn to CAN. A national officer of CAN confirmed to me that CAN received the money and disbursed N3m to each state CAN.
“I sent text messages to the CAN leadership, asking them to repent otherwise I will expose them. Nobody replied me. That was why I decided to open up. Some people say that I am working for Buhari. It is not true. I am not working for anybody.
“It is not today that I started writing on Boko Haram. I stand for the truth. Boko Haram affects everyone, Christians and Muslims”.
Musa-Dikwa, displaying a copy of a Diploma Certificate he earned from the All Nations for Christ Bible Institute International, Benin City, whose founder was the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa, said, “Anybody in CAN, who claims not to know me is just telling lies”.
He said it was wrong for the Presidency to also say he was working for the APC, saying, “I am not working for anybody. I am standing for the truth. I am standing for righteousness and for my people, whether Christians or Muslims”.
The Borno-born cleric noted that he was not afraid to die for telling the truth, arguing that after all, death meant nothing to him.
“My people (in Borno) are dying everyday; so, I am ready to die for the truth to prevail”, he added.
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