USAfricaonline.com reported the leaked audio chat Mr. Peter Obi had with pastor David Oyedepo. The leaked audio has generated a lot of controversies around Mr. Obi’s political aspirations to become the president of Nigeria.
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In that regard, the Federal government has responded by challenging the Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi to defend himself regarding a leaked audio recording of a conversation he purportedly had with a well-known Nigerian preacher.
The audio tape, which was made public by an online site, purported to be a conversation between Bishop David Oyedepo, the man who started the Living Faith Church Worldwide, and Obi.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed addressing the media on Monday (10 April) in London, said Obi should clarify what he meant by saying the leaked conversation was “a fake doctored audio call.”
“I need to draw the attention of Nigerians to the recently leaked audio of a conversation between the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the cleric.
“The leaked audio rattled Nigerians because we heard Obi pleading with the cleric to interfere on his behalf to convince Christians that this is a religious war and they should support him,” he said.
The minister said that in the aftermath of the leaked audio, Obi came out to say that it was “a fake, doctored audio call.”
The minister said: ” If it is fake, it means it never took place. But if it is doctored, it means there was that conversation but it was manipulated.
“Obi needs to come out and make the clarification on whether the conversation did not take place or it took place, but it was doctored.
“If it was doctored, which part of it was doctored?
“Is it the beginning, the middle or the end or the ‘Yes Daddy’ part of it, or where he said it was a religious war?”
Mohammed claimed that the audio leak had supported the claim that Obi’s electioneering campaign was centered on both religion and ethnicity.
He claimed that this was the first election in Nigerian history where a politician will openly use race and religion as campaigning issues.
“From the outcome of the presidential elections, you will see that Obi got his vote mostly from the areas where he comes from and his religious leaning.
” This is not good for the politics of Nigeria and it is very dangerous.
“As a result of this kind of campaign, Nigeria is more divided than ever and people are being heard commenting either based on their religious position or ethnic origin.
” Many otherwise respected commentators are not left behind on the effect of this divisive politics,” he said.
The minister described his purpose for traveling to London as defending the legality of the recently held general elections and redressing the imbalance in the skewed narrative that had permeated the media coverage of the vote.
He declared that he would inform the world, as he recently did in Washington, that the 2023 election would be the most free in Nigerian history.
According to NAN, the minister is slated to speak with and meet with relevant think tanks based in London and international media organizations.
