Kenneth Okonkwo, Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, verified the audio.
Before the 2023 general elections, Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi admitted to speaking with Living Faith Church Worldwide founder Bishop David Oyedepo on the phone.
Obi, who made the statement on Monday on Arise News, denied calling the 2016 presidential election a “religious war.”
Peoples Gazette, an online publication, trended the audio.
SaharaReporters reported that in the leaked phone conversation, Oyedepo prayed for Obi, saying, “In Jesus’ name, we are going to get a bright tomorrow,” and Obi replied, “When I hear these prayers, it is very dear to me and like I keep saying, if this thing works, you people will never regret the support.”
“We look forward to God’s intervention,” Oyedepo added, to which Obi replied, “Thank you, Daddy. Please address your Southwest and Kwara people. Southwest and Kwara Christians.” Bishop Oyedepo responded, “Alright.”
“This is a religious war,” Obi said, and Oyedepo replied, “I believe you, I believe you. I released ‘Nigeria going ahead’ and I’m releasing the second one today.”
Obi responded, “Call it whatever you want to call it,” when asked about the leaked audio chat on Monday. Any interpretation? No religious zealot here. Can I call and say “religious war”?
No, I begged the bishop to help me ask his people to vote for six months. “Catch him,” “murder him,” and “force it” were not my words. Even pleading, and that shows I kept begging for votes. Many things we tried could have been better.
Let me inform you. They’ve been manipulating Nigerians. But it’s over. Hunger kills their victims. They’ll soon discover the religious or tribal bigot. I’m not. I’ve shown you how I build mosques. No non-Muslim governor has sent more people to Mecca than me.
“It’s not a religious battle. Because it isn’t. A conversation took place. However, I never called it a religious war. For what? People surround me. I and Datti are the only presidential candidate, and his deputy and I work as brothers. I know, and we always discuss it.
We have a presidential candidate, running mate, and party chairman born after Nigeria’s independence for the first time. I’m committed to saving this country, and Datti knows it. I can’t do all these with religious war.”
The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council’s Kenneth Okonkwo confirmed the audio’s authenticity.
The ruling All Progressives Congress was seeking to deflect attention from Peter Obi’s “stolen mandate,” he added.
He stated, “The present attempts by the APC as a Party and the APC Led-government through select government officials and agencies to deflect our focus from our clearly stolen mandate is tragic and sad.
“They have arrived and continued to materialise in numerous forms, such as the false accusation of the Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, the spread of a bogus doctored audio call, and a push on me to leave the country.”
“Before, during, and after the campaign, it is on record that I have maintained my dedication and focus on issue-based campaign about a New Nigeria that is POssible, a shift from consumption to production, a New Nigeria marked by inclusion, justice, equity, fairness, and prosperity.”
He said, “I constantly maintained that no one should vote for me based on Tribe or Religion, but rather on the evaluation of Character, Competence, Capacity, Credibility, and Compassion that can be trusted to construct a New Nigeria!”
Obi also threatened to sue people disseminating his stolen audio.
“It is really regrettable that these persistent efforts to depict me totally counter to what I am and my basic principles is coming from such high quarters.” Minister Lai’s uprising accusation is spiteful and false.
“I have never talked or urged anybody to destabilise the Nigerian state; I have never advocated or preached any action against it. “Those launching these measures have increasingly utilised their official positions and agents to create false claims against me.”
I advocated for peace and issue-based campaigns, never race or religion. I am devoted to due process and pursuing court redress.”
“I encourage everyone involved in this demarketing process to cease depicting Nigeria in such a poor light.” Our children deserve a new Nigeria where they may live securely and decently like their peers in other countries. The message said, “It’s feasible.”
