In the last few days, there has been a heated exchange between the All Progressives Congress(APC) and the Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN) over allegations of looted rice. The issue essentially revolves around a viral video in which a truckload of rice was hijacked by hoodlums and looted a few days ago in Benin City during the ongoing hunger protests.
The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria reacting to the incident in a statement issued by the Chairman of Edo State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Apostle Dr. Irekpono Omoike explained that the rice being scrambled for in the video was meant for distribution by a vendor contracted by the Edo State CAN Implementation Committee as part of the second phase of the Christian Feeding Programme (CFP) sponsored by the Edo State Government and that it had nothing to do with the Federal Government.
However, the Edo State APC has continued to insist that the truckload of rice was stolen by the Christian Association of Nigeria from the Federal Government rice distribution programme.
Despite several clarifications made by CAN regarding the issue, APC has continued to accuse the umbrella body of Christians of stealing Federal Government rice in an obvious effort to deflect attention from the Hunger protests caused by the ineptitude and cluelessness of the APC led Federal Government.
This unhealthy development marks another dangerous dimension to APC’s scorch earth political tactics in the build up to the Edo State Governorship Elections. The noxious attempt to tarnish the reputation and integrity of the umbrella body of the Church just to score cheap political points is not only counterproductive but also casts the Party in a very bad light.
It is public knowledge that the Feed the Hungry Initiative was launched by Edo State government on 8th March 2024. The Christian Feeding Programme is an offshoot of that initiative and the 2nd phase which is aimed at distributing 56,000 bags of rice was flagged off by the Governor alongside the State Chairperson of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) Evang. Mrs. Margaret Agbonifo and the CAN Chairman, Apostle Irkpono Omoike on 29th July 2024.
The disputed rice was part of that second phase.
This latest attempt to tarnish the reputation of CAN and by extension Christians in Edo State is totally reprehensible and comes straight from APC’s playbook of playing divisive politics with Religion and ethnicity.
Speaking on the controversy, a member of CAN who spoke anonymously with the correspondent expressed his anger at the attempt to drag CAN into partisan politics. “Why should APC continue to peddle falsehood against CAN after two notable clergymen and Leaders of the Christian faith have come out to provide a logically coherent explanation and details as to the source of the rice in question? Why is APC keen to drag the image of the Body of Christ into disrepute? Only time will tell.
All well meaning Edo Indigenes must call out politicians for this sinister attempt to desecrate religious institutions we hold dear in order to perpetuate their toxic brand of divisive and cantankerous politics.”
Vincent Ogbebor
Benin City