11th April, 2023
By Rotimi Ijikanmi
The Federal Government has challenged Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, to clarify his position on a leaked audio of a conversation he allegedly had with a prominent Nigerian cleric.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, stated this while speaking to the media in London, United Kingdom.
According to an online newspaper, the audio clip was an alleged conversation between Obi and Bishop David Oyedepo, the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide.
Mohammed suggested that Obi clarify what he meant when he said the leaked conversation was “a fake doctored audio call.”
“I need to draw the attention of Nigerians to the recently-leaked audio of a conversation between the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the cleric.
“The leaked audio rattled Nigerians because we heard Obi pleading with the cleric to interfere on his behalf to convince Christians that this is a religious war and they should support him,” he said.
In the aftermath of the leaked audio, the minister noted that Obi came out to say that it was “a fake, doctored audio call.”
“If it is fake, it means it never took place. But if it is doctored, it means there was that conversation but it was manipulated.
“Obi needs to come out and make the clarification on whether the conversation did not take place or it took place, but it was doctored.
“If it was doctored, which part of it was doctored? Is it the beginning, the middle or the end or is it the ‘Yes Daddy’ part of it, or where he said it was a religious war?”
According to Mohammed, the leaked audio corroborated the position that Obi’s electioneering campaign was based on religion and ethnicity.
He said this was the first time in the history of Nigeria’s elections that a politician would come out openly to campaign on grounds of religion and ethnicity.
“From the outcome of the presidential elections, you will see that Obi got his vote mostly from the areas where he comes from and his religious leaning.
“This is not good for the politics of Nigeria and it is very dangerous.
“As a result of this kind of campaign, Nigeria is more divided than ever and people are being heard commenting either based on their religious position or ethnic origin.
“Many otherwise respected commentators are not left behind on the effect of this divisive politics,” he said.
Speaking on his mission to London, the minister said it was to defend the legitimacy of the just concluded general elections and to correct the imbalance in the skewed narrative which had pervaded the air on the polls
He said, like what he did recently in Washington, he would let the world know that the 2023 election was the freest in Nigeria’s history.
NAN