The Director General of Asiwaju Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation, Adebayo Shittu, has claimed that Muslims make up 65 per cent of the southwestern part of Nigeria.

He made this assertion in an interview on AIT, during the Focus Nigeria show, on Tuesday.

Shittu was justifying the decision of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, to pick a fellow Muslim, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate.

Tinubu, who is a southern Muslim, had incurred the wrath of the Christian Association of Nigerian, some party members and political stakeholders when he announced Shettima as his running mate.

Justifying his principal’s choice, Shittu maintained that southwestern Nigerians were predominantly Muslims.

“In the South-West 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. (The PUNCH)

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