Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, has been challenged by the Federal Government to clarify his position on a leaked audio of his alleged conversation with a prominent Nigerian cleric.
An online newspaper said that Obi had a conversation with Bishop David Oyedepo, who founded Living Faith Church Worldwide, in the audio clip.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, told the media on Monday in London that Obi should explain why he said the leaked conversation was “a fake doctored audio call.”
“I must bring to the attention of Nigerians the recently leaked audio of a conversation between the cleric and Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi.
He stated, “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.” Obi’s pleadings were heard in the audio.
According to the minister, Obi came out after the audio was leaked to declare that it was “a fake, doctored audio call.”
The minister declared: It means that it never happened if it is fake. However, assuming it is doctored, it implies there was that discussion yet it was controlled.
“Obi needs to come out and clarify whether the conversation took place but was altered or whether it did not.
“If it was altered, which section was altered?”
“Is it the beginning, middle, or end, or the “Yes Daddy” part, or the place where he said it was a religious war?”
Mohammed asserted that the audio that had been leaked supported Obi’s claim that his electioneering campaign was motivated by Obi’s ethnicity and religion.
He stated that this was the first time a politician had publicly campaigned on the basis of religion or ethnicity in the history of elections in Nigeria.
“The results of the presidential elections will show that Obi received the majority of his votes from his home region and religious beliefs.
This is extremely risky and detrimental to Nigerian politics.
“As a result of campaigns of this kind, Nigeria is more divided than it has ever been, and people are making comments based on their religious beliefs or ethnicity.
“Many in any case regarded pundits are not abandoned on the impact of this troublesome legislative issues,” he said.
The minister said that the reason for his trip to London was to defend the legitimacy of the recent general elections and to correct the skewed narrative that had pervaded the air about them. He said that, like he did in Washington recently, he would tell the world that the 2023 election was the freest in Nigeria’s history.
