The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has challenged the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, to clarify his position on a leaked audio of the conversation he allegedly had with a prominent Nigerian cleric.
Mohammed’s position comes against the backdrop of a raging social media battle between supporters of President-elect, Senator Bola Tinubu, and Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, over uploaded court documents on Uberfacts, an internet platform, which showed that Tinubu forfeited funds to the United States government after he was implicated in narcotics dealings.
In 1993, Bola Ahmed Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the US government after a Chicago court found the income came from heroin trafficking pic.twitter.com/aRzrTXJtl4
— UberFacts (@UberFacts) April 9, 2023
According to media reports, the 56-page document released by the district court’s headquarters in Chicago and published on Uberfacts merely refreshed information on Tinubu’s drug-dealing business.
The court documents showed Senator Tinubu and two others, K.O. Tinubu and Alhaji Mogati, were involved in banking proceeds of illicit drugs and money laundering with Heritage Bank and Citibank.
Tinubu, after negotiations was asked to keep the money in the Heritage Bank account while the $460,000 in the Citibank account was forfeited.
A federal judge subsequently dismissed the matter with prejudice on September 21, 1993, which effectively foreclosed the matter from being litigated again by all parties.
Meanwhile in London, the Information Minister, also brought up the issue of an audio clip in which Obi discussed with Bishop David Oyedepo.
The clip as released by an online newspaper was an alleged conversation between Obi and the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Oyedepo.
Addressing the media on Monday in London, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said Obi should clarify what he meant by saying the leaked conversation was “a fake doctored audio call.”
“I need to draw the attention of Nigerians to the recent leaked audio of 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.
The minister said that in the aftermath of the leaked audio, Obi came out to say that it was “a fake, doctored audio call.”
The minister said: ” 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?”
Mohammed said the leaked audio had 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 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.
The minister is scheduled to hold conversations and meetings with international media organisations and relevant think tanks based in London.
Last week, Mohammed had condemned the attack on him by pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, for stating Federal Government’s position on the 2023 elections.
Afenifere had berated the minister for admonishing Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate for inciting people to violence over the outcome of the February 25 presidential elections.
Responding to Afenifere, the minister said the attack on him was borne out of frustration and anger on the loss of their investment on Obi’s election.
“It is clear from what they said that Afenifere invested heavily on Peter Obi’s presidency, and they failed woefully, that is the reason why they are lamenting.
“They have refused to get over the loss of what they invested in Obi’s presidency campaign.
“But the earlier they do, the better for them,’’ he said
The minister said that Afenifere had lost its reputation and relevance as the voice of the South-West.
“Fortunate were days when Afenifere sneezes the whole country will catch cold. It is not the same thing right now.
“When Afenifere talks and you begin to ask yourself, which Afenifere? you know what that means,’’ he said.
He stressed his position that there was no provision in INEC laws that allows the Commission to transmit the results of election electronically.
Mohammed said that the entire process from voting to collation to sorting to tabulation and transmission was manual.
He said the laws setting up INEC, gives the Commission the right to determine the mode of elections, the mode of collation and transmission of results.
The minister also responded to a call by a civic organisation, Integrity Group calling for his national apology over the admonition of Obi.
He said the group had failed to understand the position of the Federal Government on the unacceptable postures of the Labour Party presidential candidate
“I said Peter Obi and the Labour Party should stop inciting people to violence since they have submitted themselves to the election tribunal..
“They should stop asking people to go out on the streets, they should stop the reckless statement that if the President-elect is sworn-in, it will be the end of democracy,’’ he said.
