The Obi-Datti movement, the campaign group for Labour Party presidential ticket Peter Obi has dismissed claims that the candidate violated the Electoral Act on account of raising funds from Nigerians in the diaspora for the campaigns.
The Obi-Datti Media Office was reacting to an allegation by a support group of Tinubu-Shettima calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba- Ahmed from the 2023 presidential election for allegedly violating a section of Electoral Act on Election funding.
But the Obi-Datti movement in a statement said it was amazed that the structure-less and social media candidates are now suddenly the headache of the ruling party “that they now had to fabricate and imagine things they want the electoral Commission to act on.”
The statement added “Obi’s successful trip abroad which is essentially to sensitise and carry along Nigerians abroad on his upcoming agenda of rebuilding the country is open and transparent and not a fund raising. But we know why it’s discomforting for some people, because they cannot meet Nigerians in diaspora knowing that they contributed to their leaving the country in the first place.
“We have always said it umpteenth times that their own understanding of structure is the abundance of looted funds in their kitty that they plan to deploy on hungry Nigerian voters during the election to sway their votes.
“They know nobody has the kind of stolen funds they have and are always uncomfortable at anything suggesting to them that their opponents could match them. Obi did not go to beg for money but to sell himself and his mission to Nigerians outside the shores who are critical stakeholders in the Nigeria project.
“Since June 2022 that they deployed a lump of their loot to get the ticket of their party, the nation’s currency crashed and is still battling for breath. And since then they have been mopping up foreign currencies ahead of the election to buy voters.”
The media office added that Obi and his running mate know the law and will operate within it.
Adding that the Labour Party presidential candidate and his running are financially, politically and socially doing legitimate businesses, the movement said, “They have no bullion van history of questionable wealth and are ready and willing to be scrutinized.
“Just as Obi and Datti backgrounds and antecedents are verifiable, so also is their source of income before and now are unambiguous and auditable.
“ Obi and Datti, reached where they are today in this 2023 journey giving no ‘shishi’ to anybody, because they are investing in the suffering Nigerians impoverished by the greedy leaders of the past who diverted public funds to their private and family pockets.
“We understand their predicament, the dearth of contents from their principal, the lack of what to market, using the ample opportunity provided by the campaigns and the resort to searching blindly for reasons to disqualify the people’s only hope for a new and better Nigeria.
“Suddenly, they are beginning to realize that the social media giant, the structure-less and inconsequential candidates, are in the heart of the people who are convinced by their pragmatic messages. In frustration and envy they are now desperately looking for all crooked ways to stop them.
“ Finally, we like to advise all those in this school of thought that the old order that kept us down as a nation will still work, to read the handwriting on the wall and know that their time is up and that Nigerians are ready and determined to take back their country now,” it said.
