The All Progressives Congress (APC) says its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu would not be attending the next scheduled town hall meeting organized by Arise TV.
The meeting is said to have been scheduled for Sunday, December 4 but the party in a statement on Friday by the Director, Media & Publicity of its Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga said the station did not consult with them before including Tinubu’s name, neither did it obtain their consent.
The statement added that the action by Arise TV is professionally wrong and reckless.
The campaign council Director noted that the busy schedule of Tinubu would not allow him honour such meetings and instead of attending one and missing others, the APC candidate has opted to speak directly to Nigerians through other platforms.
He urged the TV station to stop using Tinubu’s name for publicity.
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to an advertisement by Arise News in connection with a Town Hall meeting scheduled for 4 December.
“We are surprised that the TV station listed our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as a participant, when there was no prior consultation with him and his aides and no consent of the candidate obtained for the advertisement.
“We deem this as professionally wrong and reckless.
“No media organisation should arrogate to itself the right to railroad any candidate to fit into its own agenda.
“Like we said in an earlier statement, the busy and hectic campaign schedules of Asiwaju Tinubu will not permit him to honour all invitations from different radio and TV stations for debate and or Town Hall meetings hence our decision for him not to start with one media organisation and later ignore the others.
“In the absence of a unified and mutually acceptable all parties and all candidates platform, our candidate has been speaking directly to Nigerians, since President Muhammadu Buhari launched Tinubu’s Action Plan for a Better Nigeria.
“Till date, over seven town hall meetings with strategic sectors have been held across the geopolitical zones, where the candidate and his running mate have spoken about their programmes.
“These direct engagements will continue before the election on 25 February 2023.Bayo
“We, therefore, urge Arise News to stop using our candidate’s name or portrait in its advertisement, forthwith.”