The Nigeria Labour Party (LP) has accused the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, of misinforming the international community.
The federal government, through Lai Mohammed had accused the Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Bab-Ahmed, of treason during an engagement with journalists in the US, arguing that the duo had been inciting people to violence in the aftermath of the 2023 general election.
But in its reaction, the national chairman of the Labour Party, Barr Julius Abure, said that it is the APC spokesmen that are heating up the polity.
Abure said the information minister had gone on a familiarisation tour of misinforming the international community of the true political situation in Nigeria.
LEADERSHIP reports that during his official engagements with some international media organisations in Washington DC, Mohammed admonished Obi against whipping up sentiments across Nigeria.
“The Minister who engaged respectively with the Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine said it was wrong for Obi on one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and on another breadth inciting people to violence.
“Let me state categorically that there is no basis for that admonition. Our presidential candidate is a peaceful and law abiding person. Despite the fact that the election was provocatively rigged, he decided to be peaceful and toe the part of justice. And in spite of all pressures from our supporters to move into the street to protest the outcome of the general election and to reclaim the mandate freely given to our candidate by the people, he has decided to calm nerves in order to give the judicial process a chance.
“The presidential candidate of the Labour Party is the only candidate whose campaign was issues-based. In spite of all provocation, it was the Labour Party and its candidate that were attacked in Lagos, in Port Harcourt and all other states in the federation. But we have continued to promote peace.
“Therefore, for the Minister of Information and Culture to be admonishing our presidential candidate, was done in bad faith. We therefore caution the Minister to desist from such utterances. It is our considered opinion that it is even the APC, through their spokespersons and all others, who have been engaged in provocative utterances in order to cause chaos that should be admonished. The admonition is largely for APC themselves, their spokespersons and their officials,” Abure said.
Meanwhile, Peter Obi has reacted to the various campaigns of calumny directed at him by some government and political party spokespersons and warned that they should stop their de-marketing process that is presenting Nigeria in a very bad light.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Obi said, “In the past few days, I’ve observed various campaigns of calumny directed at my person, the latest being allegations attributed to Information Minister Lai Mohammed from Washington DC.
“It is most unfortunate that these consistent efforts to portray me quite contrary to what I am and my core values are coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is malicious and fictitious.
“I have never discussed or encouraged anyone to undermine the Nigerian state; I’ve never sponsored or preached any action against the Nigerian state. Those initiating these actions have increasingly used their official positions and agents to make false allegations against me. I’m on record as always advocating peace and issue-based campaigns and not campaigning based on ethnicity or religion.”
He asserted that he is committed to due process which is why he is presently seeking redress in court, even as he urged those engaged in this demarketing process to stop presenting Nigeria in such a bad light.
“Our future generations deserve a new Nigeria where they can live a secure and decent life like their counterparts in other climes. It is possible,” he added.
The federal government accused Obi of treason, weeks after the candidate of the ruling party won a hotly contested presidential election.
Lai Mohammed stated the government’s position during engagements with journalists in Washington DC in the United States yesterday.
Mohammed accused the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, of inciting people to violence over the outcome of the presidential elections, saying it is treasonable.
“Obi and his Vice, Datti-Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the president-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.
“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing. Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person; he is not a democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins election,” he said.
Mr Obi came third in the 25th February, 2023 presidential election won by Bola Tinubu of the ruling APC.
Mr Obi and Atiku Abubakar who came second are, however, challenging the results of the election in court, saying the election and result collation was flawed. Both men have publicly called on their supporters to refrain from violence while they challenge the results in court.
The minister had so far engaged respectively with the “Washington Post”, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine.
During the respective interactions with the media organisations, the minister said it was wrong for Mr Obi on one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and on another breadth incite people to violence.
The minister said in challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Mr Obi or Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). According to the minister, both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.
“The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country. Not only must he have the plurality of votes cast in an election, he must also have scored one-quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states.
“Only the president-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the vote cast in 29 states of the federation,” he said.
The minister said Atiku came second with 6.9 million votes but was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states.
He said Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one-quarter of the votes cast in 15 states.
“You cannot win an election in a poll where you came a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements. Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud, has not disowned his victory in Lagos,” he said.
Elaborating on his mission to the US, Mr Mohammed said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition to the election.
He said the opposition, having lost in the election, was alleging fraud, calling for its cancellation and constitution of an interim government.
“We have come here to balance those skewed narratives and to tell the world unambiguously that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria are the fairest, most transparent and authentic in the history of Nigeria.
“The election is the most fair and credible because of the introduction of Bimodal Voters Verification System (BVAS) which I regard as a game changer. BVAS technology had helped to weed out ghost and illegal voters, eliminate multiple voting and return sanity to the elections,” Mr Mohammed said.
Relying on the INEC report, the minister said BVAS, during the polls, worked 97 per cent, giving unparalleled credibility to the elections.
