I won’t attend Arise TV town hall meeting – Tinubu

The Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress, APC, says its flag bearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will not honour the third edition of the presidential town hall meeting hosted by Arise Television.

This was contained in a statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, Director, Media & Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council.

The announcement is coming on the heels of the recent withdrawal by the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate and his running mate, Atiku Abubakar and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, from a similar town hall meeting, “The Candidate” hosted by Original Daria Media concept, Nigerian Television Authority and MacArthur Foundation.

Recall that the Presidential town hall meeting series organised by Arise TV is slated for 4 December 2022.

While expressing surprise at the inclusion of Tinubu in its advertisement, Onanuga alleged in his statement that there was no prior consultation with him and his aides nor consent obtained from the candidate.

Part of the statement read: “Our attention has been drawn to an advertisement by Arise News in connection with a Town Hall meeting scheduled for 4 December.

“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.”