Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party (LP), has been warned by the federal government against inciting violence in Nigeria over the February 25 presidential election outcome. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, revealed this on Tuesday at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, whilst speaking on the just conducted general election. He stated to the media that Obi was wrong to redress the election outcome in court and encourage violence among Nigerians.
It is reprehensible, the minister added, for Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed, the LP vice-presidential candidate, to frighten Nigerians that democracy would end if the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party is inaugurated on May 29. He went on to label this an act of treason and a call to insurrection against the government. Mohammed claims that Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person and not a democrat he portrayed himself to be, saying that a true democrat should not just believe in democracy only when elected.
Constitution sets high standards for anybody running for president.
He went on to say that neither Obi nor Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had a chance even as they try to challenge the results of the election. The minister also claims that Obi and Atiku do not meet the necessary constitutional standards to be proclaimed president. The constitution sets high standards for anybody running for president. He pointed out that a candidate would need more than just a simple majority of votes to win an election; but would also need at least one quarter of vote casted in at least 25 states.
According to him, only the president-elect, Tinubu, met the constitutional standards, with 8.79 million votes and one-quarter of the votes in 29 states. Atiku, who came second with 6.9 million votes, only had one-quarter of the votes casted in 21 states. Whereas Obi, in third place, had one-quarter of the vote in just 15 states. He further said that Peter Obi, despite his allegations of fraud, has not renounced his victory in Lagos state, adding that a candidate who came third in the poll and did not meet the constitutional standards could not have won.
The just concluded general elections in Nigeria was the fairest.
While explaining his purpose in the United States, the minister said that his trip was to establish the truth and refute the negative narratives propagated by those who oppose the elections outcome. He stated that this is to make it clear to the world — that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria was the fairest, most transparent and credible in Nigerian history. This, he said, was made possible due to the introduction of the Bimodal Voters Verification System (BVAS), which he regarded as a game changer.
After being declared the third ranked candidate in the presidential election, Mr. Obi filed a Lawsuit seeking to recover what he called his “stolen mandate.” Thus far, he has also filed a petition questioning the eligibility of the president-elect as a presidential candidate under the constitution. Obi, however, in a tweet posted on his official Twitter timeline responded to the minister’s claim that he was encouraging an insurrection. In the thread he said “Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious”.
Obi is said to have described the election as a “Religious War.”
Continuing on he stated, “I am on record as always, advocating for Peace and issue-based campaigns and never campaigned on the basis of ethnicity or Religion.” Amidst this, a cryptic call recording purportedly featuring Obi and Bishop David Oyedepo’s voices was leaked online. The call conversation, in which Obi is said to have described the election as a “Religious War,” has now gone viral, leaving many people baffled. Obi, though, has declared the call conversation on the recording “fake” and threatened to take legal action against the blog that leaked the call recording.
