The presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) Mr. Peter Obi has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to rein on members of his cabinet and officials of the All Progressives (APC), to maintain peace in the country.
Obi who spoke through the Chief Spokesperson of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council Dr. Tanko Yubusa, in a statement on Wednesday, regretted that the ruling party has divided Nigerian state along religious and ethnic lines.
The former Anambra State governor who was reacting to a statement by Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also appealed to religious leaders especially in the North not to be part of the grand design of the state apparatus to further increase the religious and ethnic divide in the country.
“Irrespective of the outcome of the court process, we have the obligation to strive for the peace and co-existence of all Nigerians.
“We call on President Buhari to rein in his desperate officials at all levels as their actions or inactions could lead to unnecessary crisis in the country,” he warned.
The LP candidate noted that there are many campaigns of calumny against the LP presidential candidate Mr Peter Obi, and many more “planned for the near future both before and during the court process.”
According to Obi, he has been contacted by associates, elder statesmen, family and friends about his personal safety, and have been under immense pressure, in the last few days, to leave the country to doubt tension in the country.
He accused state institutions of being “part of a well calculated, deliberate and orchestrated campaign of calumny by the APC to discredit and delegitimise Mr Peter Obi and compel him to abandon his right to seek redress in court following the outcome of the last election which was adjudged both locally and internationally to have failed to meet any standard of credibility or fairness.
“As part of the grand design, they are circulating a fake doctored audio call.”
Obi stated that at no time throughout the campaign and now did he ever say, think or even imply that the 2023 election is or was a religious war.
“It is very sad and wicked the attempts to manipulate Nigerians. Our legal team have been instructed to take appropriate legal actions against Peoples Gazette and others.
“Mr Obi has been repeatedly and categorically told that he has a choice to leave the country or face the prospect of being arrested on false charges of inciting insurrection in the country.”
He added that despite the public denunciation of the fake audio call, its contents have been translated to other Nigerian languages and circulated in most parts of Northern Nigeria, and said Moslem clerics were deceived and instigated to use the contents for their sermons at various Mosques during the usual Friday prayers.
“This is a dangerous development at a time when the APC led-government and the APC party which have been awarded undeserved and unfair victory should be more concerned in addressing the ethnic and religious frictions unfortunately created by the outcome of the elections.
“Yet unsatisfied but determined to cause more problems, Mr Lai Mohammed, who fancies himself as modern day Gobbeal is on a tour of some selected countries to present an alternative story about the 2023 discredited election, and from his first statement in Washington have assumed the role of the courts by stating that Mr Obi has no pathway to victory.
“This is a direct intimidation of the courts and a waste of taxpayers’ money (Nigeria’s money).
“However, we want to make it clear to the APC party, APC led-government and its agents that Mr Peter Obi, a widely traveled man, has no intention to leave the country at this time irrespective of the pressure on him and his family.
“He is determined as he had stated in his first and only press conference after the election to challenge the outcome of the election and the process has begun. It is his fundamental right!”
He called on all Nigerians and the international community to caution APC and the APC led-government to stop their attacks, stating that “Obi’s focused and commitment to lawfully and peacefully retrieve our mandate to secure and unite our Nation, take Nigeria from consumption to production, pull millions of Nigerians out of multidimensional poverty especially in the North and jumpstart prosperity through agricultural, industrial and technological revolution remains unchanged.
“He has continued to impress upon his supporters of the essence of the legal process and will not now or in the future encourage any violence against the state.
“He has absolutely no reason for this nor desperate especially as throughout the campaign, he called for a new Nigeria defined by opportunities for all, an end to poverty and criminality in government, especially corruption and an end to tribal and religious division and bigotry.”
The LP candidate said the elections are over, and the LP is in court to retrieve it mandate, assuring that the party is “doing so through all lawful and peaceful options in line with our legal system and constitution, and I continue to implore all Nigerians to remain peaceful and law abiding.
“Those fixated with heating up the polity, creating divisions, tensions and hatred within and outside Nigeria should remember that Nigeria is our only country.
“Our focus should be on how to address the litany of challenges facing us such as deliberate non-adherence to election process, parlous state of our economy, unsustainable debt burden, lamentable unemployment and inflation, insecurity and multi-dimensional poverty.
“A New Nigeria is Indeed Possible and God will help us.”
