Labour Party candidate in the recently concluded presidential election, Peter Obi, says there is pressure on him to leave Nigeria.
Obi, in a statement yesterday, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the APC-led Federal Government and some of its agencies of casting aspersions on his person.
The LP candidate, who came third in the February 25 election, said the ruling party, some government officials and agencies were trying to divert “our attention from our blatantly stolen mandate.”
In the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Obi scored 6,101,533 votes.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of APC had 8,794,726 votes while Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar polled 6,984,520 votes.
Obi called on Nigerians and the international community to implore the “APC and the APC- led government to stop their “nasty attacks.”
Obi denounced as “fake,” a viral audio recording, which allegedly had him speaking to Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel. He was quoted in the recording as urging Oyedepo to act and support his ambition as a way to see that Christians won the “religious war” in the nation’s political sphere.
His statement reads: “The present attempts by the APC as a party, and the APC-led government through some government officials and agencies to divert our attention from our blatantly stolen mandate is unfortunate and sad.
“These have come and continued to manifest in different ways, such as the malicious accusation of the Minister of Information, Mr Lai Mohammed, the circulation of a fake doctored audio call, and pressure on me to leave the country.
“Let me reiterate that the audio call being circulated is fake, and at no time throughout the campaign and now did I ever say, think, or even imply that the 2023 election is, or was a religious war.”
Obi reiterated that his focus and commitment were to lawfully and peacefully retrieve the people’s “mandate,” secure and unite the nation.
The Nation
