Labour Party's presidential campaign spokesperson, Kenneth
Okonkwo has replied to the supporters of the party who criticised him for
confirming the authenticity of a leaked audio conversation between the party’s
presidential candidate, Peter Obi and founder of the Living Faith Church,
Bishop Oyedepo.
In the leaked conversation making the rounds in the Nigerian
digital space, Obi said the presidential election was a religious war while the
cleric concurred.
“Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West
and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara,” Obi said in the audio
obtained by Peoples Gazette.
“This is a religious war,” Obi added.
The leaked phone conversation, which was published on April
1, generated controversy, with some Nigerians calling Obi a religious bigot.
Some people also doubted the authenticity of the audio,
arguing that it was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Rather than debunking the purported leaked audio, Okonkwo
weighed in and said Obi was simply asking Oyedepo to help him pass a message to
voters.
The LP spokesman further described the audio as a private
conversation between the duo, adding that Obi was merely asking the cleric to
mobilise support for him ahead of the election.
His statement had read, “Our attention has been drawn to the
publication of this audio tape of private conversation between Peter Obi and
Bishop Oyedepo. It is not surprising that these political criminals are trying
to spin the conversation as if Obi was making a religious statement.
“Firstly, the context of the conversation was aptly put by
Bishop Oyedepo when he said, “All Nigerians have equal stake in this nation;
nobody has the right to claim that he is dashing something to someone.
“Peter Obi was simply urging the Bishop to help him push
this message of equal stake of all Nigerians in the Nigerian project to his
people and the christiandom because the politicians of the other party is
carrying on this campaign as if it is a religious war.
“To drive home this point, he informed him that he visited
the traditional ruler of Offa, the Olofa of Offa, who is a Muslim, but who
advised Obi to get the support of Oyedepo and be assured of his own support.
“No politician has ever visited the Olofa of Offa. It is
clear to everybody that the APC political party that has a Presidential
Candidate, Vice Presidential Candidate, Senate President, Speaker of the House
of Representatives, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, National
Chairman of the Party all from one religion at a time the CJN is a Muslim is
the Party that has declared religious war on Nigerians, and we must all rise up
together to fight this unconstitutional act of religious intolerance of other
religions by APC.
“I went around with Obi on campaign train and never saw him
discriminate against any religion. Of course, he can’t because his Vice is a
Muslim, unlike APC. I resigned from APC because of their religious intolerance.
Nigerians should disregard any insinuation of religious bigots about this
tape.”
Subsequently, many Nigerians who initially doubted the
authenticity of the leaked audio saw Okonkwo’s statement as confirmation of the
audio.
However, many supporters of the Labour Party took to social
media to slam the spokesperson.
Responding to the insults in a tweet, Okokwo said, “This
love is mutual. I love you all from my heart. To all who has a different
opinion from my submission be assured of my love too. Honesty is the best
policy.”
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No matter what APC as religious and ethnocentric party publish as a way of clamping down LP,
ReplyDeleteTHERE IS NO SENSE IN WHATEVER THEY ARE SAYING.