I Never Encouraged Anyone To Undermine Nigeria – Obi Reacts To Treason Allegations
Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate in the just concluded election has accused Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, of misinforming the international community on the true political development in Nigeria.
Information Nigeria had reported that during the Minister’s official engagements with some international media organisations, admonished Mr. Peter Obi, not to incite people to violence over the outcome of this years’ presidential election.
During the interactions with the media organizations, the minister said it was wrong for Obi on one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and on another breadth incite people to violence.
“Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.
“Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election,” Mohammed said.
However, in a statement on Tuesday via his Twitter handle, the former Anambra governor restated he is committed to due process and seeking redress in court.
“In the past few days, I have observed various campaigns of calumny directed at my person, with the latest being allegations attributed to the information Minister, Lai Mohammed from Washington DC,” Obi said.“It is most unfortunate that these consistent efforts to portray me quite contrary to what I am, and my core values, is coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious.
“I have never discussed or encouraged anyone to undermine the Nigerian state; I have never sponsored or preached any action against the Nigerian state.“Those initiating these actions have increasingly used their official positions and agents to make false allegations against me. I am on record as always, advocating for peace and issue-based campaign and never campaigned based on ethnicity or religion.“I am committed to due process, and presently seeking redress in the Court. I urge those engaged in this demarketing process to stop presenting Nigeria in such bad light.“Our future generations deserve a new Nigeria, where they can live a secure and decent life like their counterparts in other climes. It is possible.”
Similarly, national chairman of the Party, Julius Abure, while reacting to Mohammed’s treason allegation, said there is no basis for that admonition.
According to him, Obi has sued for calm even when his supporters have been calling for a nationwide protest.
“Our presidential candidate is a peaceful and law-abiding person. Despite the fact that the election was provocatively rigged, he decided to be peaceful and toe the part of justice. This in spite of all pressures from our supporters to move into the street to protest the outcome of the general election and to reclaim the mandate freely given to our candidate by the people, he has decided to calm the nerves in other to give the judicial process a chance.“The presidential candidate of the Labour Party is the only candidate whose campaign was issues based. In spite of all provocation, it was the Labour party and its candidate that were attacked in Lagos, in Port Harcourt and all other states in the federation. But we have continued to promote peace,” Abure said.
He said that, for the Minister of Information and Culture to be admonishing their presidential candidate, was done in bad fate, thus the Minister should desist from such utterances.
Abure said,
“It is our considered opinion that it is even the APC through their spokespersons and all others who have been engaged in provocative utterances in other to cause chaos that should be admonished. The admonition is largely for APC themselves, their spokespersons and their officials.”
