The Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja has described as falsehood and fake news, a report that its Archbishop, Ignatius Kaigama, has endorsed the former governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, as the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election.
The catholic church said it was ‘fake news’.
The Director of Communications in Archdiocese, Fr. Patrick Alumuku, who clarified this in a statement on Thursday, titled, “Archbishop Kaigama Endorses Shettima: A Disclaimer”, said that the general public is notified that Archbishop Kaigama has not and will not endorse any candidate as his flock cut across political parties and he would not prefer one candidate above the other.
The statement reads, “One of their antics to give credit to the much-criticized choice, has been to use the good names of reputable Nigerians to ‘launder’ the image of Shettima. One such futile attempt is dragging the name of Most Rev Ignatius Kaigama, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, into the fan base of APC. Recently, social media was agog with the skewed news of such spurious endorsements.
“To set the records right, at no point has the venerable archbishop either in his capacity or as the Metropolitan of Abuja Ecclesiastical Province made such comments.”
“Those familiar with the norms of the Catholic Church understand that Canon 285 § 2 admonishes that ‘Clerics are to avoid those things which, although not unbecoming, are nevertheless foreign to the clerical state.’”
