BMO demands Kukah’s exit from Abdulsalam Committee

FOR his role in brokering peace between Peoples Democratic Party,  (PDP), presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and his former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), has demanded for the disengagement of the Catholic Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese Matthew Kukah from  the National Peace Committee led by former Head of State General Abdulsalam Abubakar.

BMO  in a statement by  Niyi Akinsiju and  Cassidy Madueke, chairman and secretary,  claimed that Bishop Kukah involvement in the peace talks which culminated in Chief Obasanjo endorsement of the PDP presidential candidate “was open display of support for the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Atiku Abubakar, despite his claims that it was not a political gathering he intended.”

The BMO further noted that the Abdulsalam Abubakar-led committee was one that should be seen to be non-partisan because of the role it was meant to play in the run-up to the 2015 election.

“We are surprised, like many Nigerians, to see Bishop Kukah in the company of the opposition candidate at a reconciliation meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and later on claiming to be the strategic mind behind the reconciliation which we believe was targeted towards bringing the two parties together to fight the President Buhari administration.”

“This is not expected of a clergyman who is seen in some quarters as the alternate head of the National Peace Committee.

“He has shown his bias and as such cannot be trusted to be non-partisan.”

BMO dismissed claims by the Catholic Bishop that he was not aware of the political nature of the gathering as tales that no one will believe.

“The clergy man was the key figure behind the reconciliation and did this knowing that Atiku was a PDP Presidential aspirant.”

‘And if it is true that Bishop Kukah is insisting that he was only exercising his right to free movement, we are also demanding that he has shown his hand, he has no reason to sit on a panel that is meant to be non-partisan.”

The Buhari Media Organisation added that it fully supports President Muhammadu Buhari’s admonition that religious leaders abstain from partisan politics.