Clarifies on various allegations against him
Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate for the 2023 election, has stated that those attempting to manipulate Nigerians will soon be unable to do so and that those who are the real bigots will be exposed.
Obi, who admitted to having a phone conversation with David Oyedepo, the founder of Winners Chapel, said he never described the 2023 election as a “religious war”.
Speaking on Arise Television, Monday night, he said: “Call it whatever you want to call it. Whatever anyone wants to make of it. I am not a religious bigot. Do you think I can just pick a phone and say ‘religious war’? No, I was even begging the bishop to help me ask his people to vote, which was what I was doing for six months -begging,”
“I wasn’t saying ‘catch him’, ‘kill him’, ‘force it’. I was even begging. That shows that I continued to look for votes by begging. There were so many things we tried to do but they were not okay.
“Let me tell you; those who have been trying to manipulate Nigerians have been doing it. But it is coming to an end. The people they have been manipulating are dying of hunger.
“They will soon know who is the religious or tribal bigot. I am not one. I have just given you an example of how I built mosques. Till today, no non-Muslim governor has sent more people to Mecca than me.
“I can never say it (election) is a religious war. Because it is not. There was a conversation. But I never said it was a religious war. What for? I am surrounded by people.
“If there was ever an instance where the presidential candidate and his deputy work as brothers, it is me and Datti. And I know and we never stop talking about it.
“For the first time in the history of Nigeria, we have a presidential candidate, running mate and party chairman who were born after Nigeria’s independence.
“We must save this country and he (Datti) knows my commitment to it. I can’t do all these with the background of religious war.”
On the allegation of treason levelled against him by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammad the former Anambra State Governor, described it as the height of rascality and a waste of scarce resources.
“That is the height of rascality. It was even announced in Washington. I committed a treasonable offence and I’m in Onitsha, and my minister went to announce it in Washington. This is the waste in governance we are talking about and people don’t want to understand.
“The amount it cost Nigeria for him to go and announce that in Washington can build a block of six classrooms in a primary school. I’m sure if you go to his village there are so many places where children don’t even have desks or classrooms to go to school.
“Instead of using that money for this purpose, he went to Washington to announce treason against someone in Onitsha. He doesn’t need to do that. From there he went to London, announcing the same thing when I’m in Nigeria. He should have come to see me or invited me and tell me my offence,” he said.
Responding to the crisis in the Labour Party, the Presidential standard bearer said
that there were no issues in the party and that the reported crisis is just the “rascality” by paid agents bent on derailing the party to pursue justice.
He said: “In the Labour Party, we have no issue. Bar Julius Abure is our chairman and those things you’re seeing are just the handiwork of paid agents who are trying to create confusion,”
On the report showing a picture of him visiting the President-elect, the former Anambra state Governor said he never visited the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, as speculated on social media.
He explained that the rumours and accompanying photoshopped pictures being shared on social media platforms were part of moves by the opposition to derail his objective.
“I never visited him (Tinubu). I didn’t. These are some of the things I have been telling you. They have turned the whole thing upside down and into a joke. So, what they (the opposition) do now is think about what they are going to do to cause issues and what they are going to do to label him (Obi) this or that.
“If it is not labelling him (Obi) tribal bigot, or religious bigot when he is not speaking, they will find his family and check whether he has a lovechild and all sorts of things, including misrepresented identity among others, I didn’t visit anybody,” the former governor stressed.
He maintained that despite all these he was committed to the course of justice and was ready to pursue the case before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to a logical conclusion.
Obi also clarified that he doesn’t hold United Kingdom citizenship explaining that even though he stayed in the country for some period, he returned his “unlimited residency permit” to the authorities when he was about to leave the country.
On his recent alleged arrest in London, Obi explained that he was only stopped for a routine immigration check.
According to him, “I was stopped for a routine immigration check and all these lasted for a maximum of 20 minutes. I was treated with all due respect. I was never arrested nor detained,” the former governor insisted.
“I lived in the UK in the 90s from 1993 to 2005. From that time till now is 30 years and I have never been questioned, arrested, or detained in any country in the world.
“I have never been arrested or questioned in any manner. I have never committed any offence. So, what happened was a routine immigration check and that happened not more than 20 minutes and I was given all due respect by the authorities.”
Also, responding to a question on an allegation that he could be a citizen of Solomon Island, Obi said: “I have never been there all my life. One of the few places I have gone to in the Caribbean is Haiti. I was a governor when they had the earthquake. Everybody close to me knows that I have been to the most troubled places in the world. So, when there was an earthquake in Haiti, I went to President Goodluck Jonathan and told him I was going to the country to help them rebuild and he (Jonathan) was surprised.
“That is what I have done all my life; I have been to the most troubled places in the world. I withdrew my son from school and we went to Haiti. I helped them to raise money then, over $200,000. So, I have been to Haiti and also Barbados, but I don’t know Solomon Island.
“I don’t own a property anywhere outside Nigeria, except in the UK, where I live. Other than that, if there is a property in the name of Peter Obi, it is fake and I don’t need it. Why would I own a property where I don’t live?” (Daily Sun)
