The Middle-Belt Congress (MBC) has insisted that Senator Kashim Shettima must resign as the running mate to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for the All Progressive Congress (APC) to avoid a misfortune in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election.
Speaking in Abuja, the leader of the group, Mr. Bilal Abdullahi said the Muslim-Muslim ticket chosen by APC will fail.
He claimed that if the APC wants to have a major influence in the 2023 presidential elections, it should retrace its actions in terms of presidential ticket composition.
The organisation went on to say that it believed that Shettima’s self-professed affinity with the Christian community might be a ruse, adding that his actions of late do not indicate that of a religiously tolerant individual.
The MBC declared that Senator Kashim Shettima’s retention as the APC’s vice presidential candidate was ethically unjustified, claiming that such a move had inflamed politics in ways too many to describe in the country.
According to the statement, “The incomprehensible fact remains that the leadership of the APC is aware of the threats posed to its electoral success with the Muslim-Muslim ticket, yet it has remained adamant about the uproar its choice of Muslim-Muslim ticket has elicited in the polity.”
The Middle Belt Congress urged Shettima to behave honorably by relinquishing his candidacy as the APC’s presidential running partner for the sake of peace.
It noted that the senator’s nomination had caused ethnic and religious tensions in the country, decrying that the development is coming “at this vital phase of the country’s existence where there are concerted efforts to unite it along ethnic and religious lines.”