A former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has claimed that the author of the controversial WhatsApp message pitching presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi against the camp of his APC counterpart, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is an Igbo man like Obi.
The Herald had reported that Obi said in a video that a “Tinubu’s Group” was spreading a WhatsApp message calling on the Yoruba not to vote for him.
“Yoruba shine your eyes o, if you vote for Peter Obi, it is automatically voting for seaports in South South and South East. The Igbos will stop coming to Lagos State to invest, rather they will go to Delta and Rivers States, they may even stop building houses in Lagos. It will affect a lot of Yorubas. Yoruba ro nu o,” says the text of the message as read by Obi in the video.
Obi’s video provoked a furious reaction from the APC Presidential Campaign Council which accused him of using falsehood to create chaos and distrust among the electorate and heat up the polity.
In a Monday statement, Official Spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign, Festus Keyamo SAN said that no such message emanated from any official Tinubu support group.
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In a reaction, Fani-Kayode said Obi lied about the true identity of the owner of the WhatsApp group where the controversial message was got.
Sharing Obi’s video on his Facebook page, Fani-Kayode said, “Peter, you are nothing but a LIAR.
“The name of the individual whose WhatsApp message you publicised on your mendacious and childish video, which I have posted here, is one Powell Glad Legbe who is not only an Igbo but also a racist, hate-filled reprobate and delusional delinquent who despises the Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani and Ijaw and who is close to you.
“That is why you covered his name and did not want it mentioned in your video.
“You now lied and attempted to pass him off as a member of the Tinubu Support Group and a Yoruba man when you knew very well that this was not the case.
“Based on this alone it is clear that you are a very dangerous, deceitful and dishonest man who is brimming with mendacity and who is attempting to spark off a tribal war between the Igbo on the one hand and the Yoruba and rest of Nigeria on the other.
“That is what your video was trying to achieve and by God’s grace you shall fail.
You ended by saying that Tinubu is “not well” and that he is a sick man meanwhile you that sounds like an Egyptian eunuch when you talk is not only sick in the mind but also sick in body, spirit and soul.
“Your sickness has deluded you into thinking that you can be President when deep down you know that you do not have a hope in hell of winning even up to 10% of the vote in ANY state.
“I hereby warn you to mind what you say, act your age and stop attempting to create ethnic, racial and religious divisions in our country lest we name you as a closet secessionist who is not fit to be considered as a patriot, a national figure or a serious presidential candidate and who hates anything or anyone that is not from your part of the country.
“The truth is that you do not represent the Igbo, you only represent your own stomach. You are a shameless opportunist and a man that is filled with lies.
“Your agenda is not an Igbo one: it is a personal one for you and your inner circle and it is a rough, dark, dingy and slippery road that leads to nowhere.
“You know you cannot win so you want to provoke a second civil war and God forbid that should ever happen.
“I call on the Igbo leadership and elders to call this dangerously deluded, irresponsible and vainglorious man to order and to warn him to desist from provoking the entire nation into a confrontation with those he claims to represent.
“We want peace and unity in our country.
“We do not want a tribal war and neither should we be encouraging or provoking one with our words, actions and fanciful fables.”