By John Alechenu
LABOUR PARTY Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi, has urged the Federal Government and spokesmen of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to stop the campaign of calumny against him, noting that the campaigns were damaging the image of Nigeria on the global stage.
Obi spoke in response to the admonishment of the Federal Government that he and his running mate in the 2023 presidential poll, Dr Yusuf Datti-Ahmed, should stop inciting people to violence over the outcome of the presidential election.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave the admonition in Washington DC during his official engagements with some international media organisations on the just concluded 2023 polls, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Campaign of calumny’s damaging Nigeria’s reputation — Obi
Asking the Federal Government and Spokespersons of the APC to stop the campaign of calumny against his person, Obi noted that the campaign was de-marketing Nigeria on the global stage.
Obi, who said this in a statement in Abuja, explained that the various campaigns of calumny directed at him by some government and political party spokespersons would be a disservice to the nation in the long run.
His words: “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 are 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.
“ I’m committed to due process and I am presently seeking redress in court. I urge 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”
I am saddened by Lai Mohammed’s action — Obi
Speaking specifically on Lai Mohammed’s comments, Obi said that he was not perturbed by the Minister bandying around the word ‘treason’ because, as far as he (Obi) was concerned, he had taken the legal route toward the recovery of his mandate and that he remained committed to that. “Any person ‘seeing’ treason in a clear legal process should explain to Nigerians how opting for the tribunal by myself and my Deputy amounts to treason,” Obi said.
Regretting what he described as “recklessness” by some Nigerians, Obi said it was utterly perplexing that a Minister would be busy travelling around the world, telling Nigerians that the purpose was to tell the world the true story of the Nigerian election.” Obi said it was laughable, against the background of the fact that most of those countries sent their people to monitor the election and have all received reports from the monitors, as well as from their embassies. “Obi asked: “Between Lai Mohammed and their monitors/embassies, who would these countries believe?”
He further said that such reckless behaviour, sponsored with taxpayers’ money, was among the reasons those countries often do not take Nigeria seriously. “The billions spent on those meaningless trips would be enough to fix several dilapidated schools in the country,” Obi said.
Stop inciting violence, FG warns Obi, Datti
Earlier, while admonishing Obi against inciting people to violence over the outcome of the presidential election, the Federal Government through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had official engagements with some international media organisations on the just concluded 2023 polls.
So far, the minister has engaged the Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine.
During the interactions with the media organisations, Mohammed said it was wrong for Obi on one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and on another breadth incite people to violence.
“Obi and his vice, Datti Ahmed, cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress 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 the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election,” he said.
The minister said in challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
According to the minister, neither Obi nor Atiku met 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 the 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 votes cast in 29 states of the federation,” he said.
The minister said Atiku who came second with 6.9 million votes was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states.
He said Obi came third with 6.1 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 to a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements,” the minister said
Buhari walks his talk on credible polls —FG
Mohammed also said President Muhammadu Buhari has delivered on his pledge to leave behind a legacy of free, fair and credible elections in the conduct of 2023 polls.
The minister said in fulfilment of the President’s pledge to restore sanity to the electoral process, he resolved that he would not confer a special advantage on any political party, including the ruling APC during the election.
He said during the elections, the President ensured that nobody used the security agencies to rig the election in his favour but created a level-playing ground for the elections to take place.
“Proof of this resolution is that the President’s party lost the presidential election in Katsina, his home state.
“Equally, the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, lost in his state, Lagos, while the chairman of the Party, Abdullahi Adamu, lost in Nasarawa State to the Labour Party.
“The Director-General of the Campaign Organisation of our party also lost to PDP in Plateau State.
“Nothing gives these elections more credence than those facts because there was no rigging in states where our bigwigs come from,” he said.
The minister added that APC lost in the four states with the highest number of votes in the elections – Katsina, Kano, Kaduna and Lagos even when they were the ruling party’s controlled states.
Mohammed said the allegations of fraud being bandied by the opposition and naysayers did not add up.
According to the minister, the controversy was generated because of the inability of INEC to upload the results of the Presidential election in real time.
He said the controversy was unnecessary though it had been the fulcrum of the argument of the naysayers that elections were flawed.
NAN recalled that INEC had come under fire over its inability to upload results immediately on its Result Viewing portal during the presidential and National Assembly elections. held on February 25.
Mohammed, however, said the conclusion by the opposition and naysayers was based on ignorance of the role and functions of IREV.
He said IREV, a platform whereby election results at the polling level are uploaded, was not a tool for the collation of elections or to transmit results electronically.
“Under our laws today, management of election results is manual and the court has ruled that INEC has the exclusive right to determine the mode of election, its collation and transmission.
“What happened on the 25th of February was that INEC observed that the results of the Presidential elections were not being viewed.
“INEC, suspecting a cyber attack, withheld the uploading of the results to preserve the integrity of the data.
“It immediately proceeded to float an alternative platform while asking its technicians to investigate what happened to its original portal.”
The minister explained further that it took about 9 pm for the alternative portal to start working.
He said as soon as the original portal started working, the results were viewed from the two platforms.
“It is unfortunate that this is what the opposition is relying on to say the elections were rigged.
“So far, none of the political parties has come out to say that what is on Form EC8A is different from what was uploaded on IREV,” he said.
Speaking on delay in delivering election materials to certain areas, the minister said it was difficult in a country as diverse and complex as Nigeria for election materials to arrive at the same time everywhere.
(NAN)