The campaign council of presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has dismissed a trending leaking audio recording of a call he purportedly had with Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel.
First published by Peoples Gazette, the audio recording allegedly had Obi soliciting Christian votes from the popular cleric.
“Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara. This is a religious war,” the LP candidate purportedly said.
“I believe that, I believe that, I believe that,” Oyedepo responded.
Obi promised, “like I keep saying: if this works, you people will never regret the support.”
He explained that Christians in places like Kogi, Kwara and Niger have been difficult to penetrate.
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“We look forward to God’s intervention,” Oyedepo replied and promised to help spread Obi’s message to Christians.
In a Sunday statement issued by the Head of the Obi-Datti Media Office, Mr Diran Onifade, the LP presidential campaign blamed the All Progressives Congress (APC) for spreading false tales in a desperate bid to grab and retain power.
“It appears the All Progressives Congress’ desperation to grab and retain power by foul means has refused to go away more than a month after they have grabbed the election as they planned.
“While we are toeing the constitutional path to retrieve our mandate, those who have truncated the wishes of the majority of Nigerians have recoursed to mischief and endless subterfuge to continue to hold on to what they know does not belong to them.
“From the show of shame in Portharcourt to the drama in the Ibom Air aircraft, both of which they contrived, they have now moved to the circulation of a deep fake audio file aimed at promoting religious tension in the country.
“All these are meant to serve no other purpose than egregious mischief aimed at demarketing Peter Obi. If the goal is to create a credibility problem, the ploy has failed woefully.
“Peter Obi has long been on record as the only presidential candidate who has urged the Nigerians electorate not to vote for him on the basis of religion or tribe .
“We will therefore like to advice our beloved Nigerian people to remain focused on the task to take back the mandate we know was freely given to Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed through legitimate means.
“That is more important than to expect those who ran election on forged credentials and even fake Bishops to stop faking. They cannot stop being fraudulent because that is who they are,” Onifade’s statement read.