Senator Shehu Sani has risen in defense of Catholic Bishops in Nigeria, saying that they have remained consistent in speaking truth to power right from the Military era.

In a post on his X handle, Senator Sani who is the All Progressive Congress, APC candidate for Kaduna Central Senatorial in the forthcoming election said Catholic bishops have remained consistently non-partisan.

Senator Sani’s intervention stems from the brutal personal attack officials of the presidency launched on Cardinal Onayekan who said in an appearance on Arise Television that from the meeting of Catholic Bishops with President Tinubu, it was obvious he was not being fed the true position in the country.

One of President Tinubu’s aide, Temitope Ajayi went further to accuse Cardinal Onayekan of abuse of  Ecclesiastical privilege for talking about a meeting that was in the public domain and covered by national television.

But in a riposte, Senator Sani said “from the era of Military rule and throughout the period of civilian Governments, the Catholic Bishops have a consistent history of telling truth to power. They have never been partisan. Every President they visited, they bring him a gift of Bitter Kola instead of Olive Oil”.

Similarly, veteran Journalist, lawyer and human Rights activist, Richard Akinola in a post on Facebook defended the bishops and Cardinal Onayekan for his consistency in criticising bad policies of government.

In the Post titled In defence of Cardinal Onayekan, Mr Akinnola wrote: “This defense is not in relation to what he said but in his consistency. There is nothing the Cardinal said regarding the current administration that he didn’t say to presidents Jonathan and Buhari administration. Therefore, to that extent, he has been consistent and could not be accused of bad faith against the current administration. In any case, president Tinubu had stated on at least two occasions, telling people should be free to criticize him.