The camp of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the just concluded general election, Mr. Peter Obi, seems to have been thrown into confusion following a leaked alleged audio conversation between Obi and the general overseer of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo.
While Kenneth Okonkwo, a spokesperson of the LP campaign, in a series of posts on his official Twitter handle said “political criminals are trying to spin the conversation as if the LP candidate was making a religious comment.
‘Our attention has been drawn to the publication of this audio tape of private conversation between @PeterObi and Bishop Oyedepo. It is not surprising that these political criminals are trying to spin the conversation as if Obi was making a religious statement,’ Okonkwo said.
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‘Firstly, the context of the conversation was aptly put by Bishop Oyedepo when he said ‘All Nigerians have equal stake in this nation, nobody has the right to claim that he is dashing something to someone’.
‘H E @PeterObi was simply urging the Bishop to help him push this message of equal stake of all Nigerians in the Nigerian project to his people and the Christendom because the politicians of the other party are carrying on this campaign as if it is a religious war.
‘To drive home this point, he informed him that he visited the traditional ruler of Offa, the Olofa of Offa, who is a Muslim, but who advised Obi to get the support of Oyedepo and be assured of his own support. No politician has ever visited the Olofa of Offa.’
According to Okonkwo, it is the ruling party that has declared religious war on Nigerians. He added that Nigerians “must all rise up together to fight this unconstitutional act of religious intolerance of other religions by APC.
Meanwhile, a media aide to Mr. Obi, Mr. Val Obienyem, dismissed the leaked audio as fake and a clandestine plot to get him blackmailed, so that he would be charged to court for treasonable offences, Kenneth Okonkwo, a spokesperson of the LP campaign admitted that there was, indeed, a conversation between the two.
Obienyem, revealed that a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who is an indigene of Anambra State but based in Lagos, is heading a team set up to find a way of getting Obi indicted with treasonable charges.
He stated that the team, which also has some personnel of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), is currently reviewing all calls made by the LP presidential candidate in the last three years, especially recently to see if he (Obi) mentioned ‘interim government or anything that will make them prosecute him for treason when and if they (Ahmed Bola Tinubu and his APC) take over (government)’.
In a statement titled, ‘Obi versus Oyedepo: Too bad,” Obienyem said, “I heard they set up a committee made up of some people from the Nigerian Communications Commission, headed by our prodigal brother from Nnewi.
‘They (Tinubu and his supporters in APC) are reviewing all calls Obi made in the last three years, and especially now, to see if he mentioned interim government or anything that will make them prosecute him for treason when, and if, they take over. Till now, they are yet to see any.
‘The badly doctored conservation with Bishop Oyedepo released by our Nnewi prodigal brother is the most they have discovered so far. They edited out the Muslim-Muslim ticket that led to the discussion, where Obi said that in a society like ours, religious balancing was a necessary consideration and that their recklessness had made Christians to assume it was a religious war.’
Meanwhile, Nigerians have continued to react to leaked tapes.