I’ll never attend Arise News presidential town hall meeting, Tinubu vows, gives reasons

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, has vowed never to attend the Arise News town hall meeting.

This claim was made by Tinubu in a statement on Friday that was signed by Bayo Onanuga, the Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council.

Regarding an advertisement by Arise News for a Town Hall meeting set on December 4, the APC presidential candidate made the vow.

The statement reads, “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.

“As 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. We therefore urge Arise News to stop using our candidate’s name or portrait in its advertisement, forthwith.”