APC deliberately orchestrated campaigns to slander Obi, Labour Party alleges

The Labour Party (LP) has alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) deliberately orchestrated a campaign to slander to delegitimize its party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

The party spokesman, Yunusa Tanko said in a statement on Thursday that Obi had been immensely pressured to leave the country or he will face the prospect of being arrested on false charges of inciting insurrection in the country.

“These concerns have increased intensely in the last few days as immense pressure, has been mounted directly on Obi to leave the country, no doubt from sources allied to the All-Progressive Congress (APC) and its agents in the security services,” Tanko said.

“Obi has been repeatedly and categorically told that he has a choice to leave the country or face the prospect of being arrested on false charges of inciting insurrection in the country.”

Tanko also claimed that the ruling party is part of an “orchestrated campaign” designed to slander, delegitimise and discredit Obi by pressuring him to give up his right to seek redress in court.

“As part of the grand design, they are circulating a fake doctored audio call. At no time throughout the campaign and now did Obi ever say, think or even imply that the 2023 election is or was a religious war. It is very sad and wicked the attempts to manipulate Nigerians,

“Despite the public denunciation of the fake audio call, its contents have been translated to other Nigerian languages and circulated in most parts of Northern Nigeria with some of our Muslim clerics deceived and instigated to use the contents for their sermons at various Mosques during the usual Friday prayers.

“This is a dangerous development at a time when the APC led-government and the APC party which have been awarded undeserved and unfair victory should be more concerned in addressing the ethnic and religious frictions unfortunately created by the outcome of the elections,” Tanko added.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had alleged that Obi was trying to incite an uprising in the country, adding that the Labour Party candidate is not the democrat that he claimed to be.

LP spokesman, however, stated that the minister has ‘determined’ to cause more problems by presenting an alternative story about the 2023 election to the international media.

“ Mohammed, who fancies himself as modern-day Gobbeal is on a tour of some selected countries to present an alternative story about the 2023 discredited election, and from his first statement in Washington, have assumed the role of the courts by stating that Obi has no pathway to victory. This is a direct intimidation of the courts and a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Tanko said.

He also claimed that there are more campaigns of calumny planned against Obi by APC and its agents in the near future, both before and during the court process.

Tanko noted that Obi has no intention to leave the country at this time, irrespective of the pressure on him and his family members, stating that he is determined to challenge the outcome of the election, and the process has begun.

“We want to make it clear to the APC party, APC led-government and its agents that Obi, a widely travelled man, has no intention to leave the country at this time, irrespective of the pressure on him and his family.

“He is determined, as he had stated in his first and only press conference after the election, to challenge the outcome of the election, and the process has begun. It is his fundamental right”

He added that Obi is determined and committed to legally and peacefully reclaiming the party’s mandate for the nation’s security and uniting the nation, transforming it from a consumer to a producer, and rescuing millions of citizens from multifaceted poverty, especially in the North.

Tanko urged Nigerians and the international community to caution APC to stop these alleged nasty attacks, stating that

“Those fixated with heating up the polity, creating divisions, tensions, and hatred within and outside Nigeria should remember that Nigeria is our only country.

“Our focus should be on how to address the litany of challenges facing us, such as deliberate non-adherence to the election process, the parlous state of our economy, an unsustainable debt burden, lamentable unemployment and inflation, insecurity, and multi-dimensional poverty.” he added.