Adebayo Shittu, the director-general of Asiwaju Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation, has justified the APC Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, stressing that Islamic faith makes up of 65 percent of south-west Nigeria.
Shittu who made this assertion in an interview on AIT, during the Focus Nigeria show, on Tuesday, justified the decision of Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate to pick a fellow Muslim, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate.
Recall that Tinubu’s decision to name Shettima, a fellow Muslim from the Northeast as his running mate has continued to generate condemnations, especially within the Christian community in the country.
However, justifying his principal’s choice, Shittu, a former minister of communications, maintained that southwestern Nigerians were predominantly Muslims.
“In the Southwest of Nigeria, the Muslims constitute an average of 65%,” of the population, the lawyer asserted.
When asked if his claim was based on fact or projection, he said, “I don’t tell lies. You can investigate. Do your research.”
He added, “It is on the basis of religion that people are making noise about the so-called Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“In Ekiti, it is Christian-Christian ticket. In Ondo, it is Christian-Christian ticket. In Edo, where the Northern part of the state is largely Muslim, it is Christian-Christian ticket. Nobody is making noise about this.”
Also speaking on the APC’s loss in the Osun State governorship poll, Shittu noted that the defeat of the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola, was a very big disappointment.
The former Minister of Communications said, “The Osun incident was a very big disappointment. But for some of us, it was not too surprising and I regret to say this.
“A lot of factors must have contributed to what happened.”
On Sunday, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party the winner of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The Returning Officer for the election and Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, said Adeleke got a total of 403,371 votes to beat Governor Oyetola who polled 375,027 votes in the keenly contested race.
In a recent interview on Channels TV, Adeleke had noted that the misunderstanding between Oyetola and his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, aided his victory.