President Muahmmadu Buhari regime’s information minister Lai Mohammed has challenged the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, to clarify his position on a leaked audio of the conversation he had with the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo.

Addressing the media on Monday in London, the minister said Mr Obi should clarify what he meant when he claimed the leaked conversation was “a fake doctored audio call.”

“I need to draw the attention of Nigerians to the recent leaked audio of conversation between the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the cleric,” the minister stated. “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 added, “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 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 is it the ‘Yes Daddy’ part of it, or where he said it was a ‘religious war’?”

Mr Mohammed said the leaked audio corroborated the position that Mr Obi’s electioneering was based on religion and ethnicity, claiming it was the first time in the history of Nigeria’s elections that a politician would come out openly to campaign on the grounds of religion and ethnicity.

“From the outcome of the presidential election, you will see that Obi got his vote mostly from areas where he comes from and his religious leaning. This is not good for the politics of Nigeria, and it is very dangerous,” the minister alleged. “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.”

Speaking on his mission to London, the minister said it was to defend the legitimacy of the February 25 and March 18 elections and to correct the imbalance in the skewed narrative which had pervaded the air on the polls.

He said, like what he did recently in Washington, he would let the world know that the 2023 elections were the freest in Nigeria’s history.

President-elect Bola Tinubu is a stalwart of the ruling APC. Major opposition Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party are contesting his declaration by INEC as the presidential election winner.

(NAN)