The presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Monday spoke on the leaked audio where he was discussing with the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, David Oyedepo, insisting that he did not call the 25 presidential election a “religious war.”
Mr Obi appeared on Arise Television where the anchor of the show, Charles Aniagolu, asked him about four times to comment on the leaked audio whether to accept or debunk the claims surrounding it but the presidential candidate initially tried to evade the question by picking up other discussions.
A voice recording which many people believed was a conversation between Messrs Obi and Oyedepo surfaced online after the presidential election. In the recording which went viral, Mr Obi was seeking the clergyman’s help to facilitate votes for him amongst the Christian community. He allegedly said the election was a ‘’religious war”.
When the question on the leaked recording was first asked by the Arise TV anchor, Mr Obi responded by saying that “he is fine” with the motives behind circulation of the recording but never mentioned whether he had the “religious war” discussion with the clergyman.
He only pointed out that he had never been a religious or tribal bigot.
“Whatever you call it, whatever anybody wants to make of it, it is fine with me. All I can tell you is that I am not a religious or tribal bigot. I just said it, whatever they are making about this is their business. I have shown you examples, several examples this evening of things that were said about me that are false, from dual citizens, from detention, from treason….so whatever they make it.
“Let me tell you, I am not a religious bigot. Go and look in the history of this country and ask yourself how many people have been opportune to serve privately and publicly and surround themselves with Nigerians. I have said it before (that) I was governor of my state for eight years. My ADC, who I mentioned everyday is the closest person to me, is from Kano.
“They said I demolished the mosque in Onitsha, I made Muslims to carry ID cards. My police commissioner was from Kano, he was a Muslim. My ADC was from Kano and he was a Muslim and I was asking people to carry ID cards and I was demolishing where they go to worship? Now I went to celebrate Sallah with the people in the mosque in Onitsha and they said it was me who rebuilt the mosque when it was destroyed under another governor. So I built the mosque but I was labelled as the one who demolished it. Where do you start?” Mr Obi said.
When pressed further by his interviewer for clarity on the allegation, the LP presidential candidate denied ever saying the election was a religious war. He said he was only begging Mr Oyedepo to help him canvass votes.
“For me, let me even assume it happened. Do you think I can just pick a phone and say religious war? No, there must have been a conversation. I was even begging the bishop to help me to ask his people to vote which is what I was doing for six months. Begging. I wasn’t saying snatch it, kill it, take it, force it. I was even begging, which shows that I will continue to look for votes by begging.
“There are so many things they have tried to do but everything is okay and easy to manipulate. Let me tell you those who have been manipulating people in Nigeria have been doing it but it is coming to an end because even those they are manipulating are now dying of hunger. So they will soon know who is a religious bigot, a trial bigot. I am not one. When I do pilgrimage, I send people to Israel and I send people to Mecca because I believe this is the way to go.
“I can never say religious war. It was a conversation. Just like what happened to me in London, even if I was stopped, they can call it I was stopped or even detained. But to go and say you committed a crime… the conversation around the election. I have said it that these people are trying to do these but I did not campaign that it is a religious war, what for? I am surrounded by people.”
Mr Obi further said his intention to develop the country has nothing to do with being a religious or tribal bigot.
He said, “These things like I said yesterday – development doesn’t know religion or tribe all these people are saying. Let them show me the road they built. I have never seen a road constructed where only the Muslims are allowed to pass.
“Like I said, those who are talking about religion in this country, can they show me where Muslims buy bread cheaper, so we can go there and buy the bread or show me where Christians buy the bread cheaper. They are only using these things… people only bring the issue of religion and tribe because they are not competent, because they don’t want to serve.”
When the audio surfaced online some weeks ago, Mr Obi, in a statement he personally signed, said the audio was fake. He claimed that at no point in his campaign did he refer to the election as religious war.
His media office had also debunked the audio, describing it as false.
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