The post-election utterances of Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi and his running mate Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed are inciting and treasonable, the Federal Government alleged yesterday.
It accused them of threatening the country with comments capable of inciting people to violence.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, referred to an interview by Baba-Ahmed on a Channels Television programme, in which he urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) not to swear in the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The minister spoke in Washington where he is engaging with international media organisations, including the Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine, as well as think tanks, over the 2023 polls.
Mohammed said it was wrong for Obi in one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and in other breadth incite people to violence.
But, Obi denied the allegations, saying it was part of various campaigns of calumny directed at him.
He said: “Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious.”
Obi, however, did not dissociate himself from the comments by his running mate, over which the television station was sanctioned by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
The LP campaign council said Mohammed’s allegations were aimed at discrediting Obi locally and internationally.
But, the Federal Government got the backing of Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, who denounced what he described as the menacing utterances of Baba-Ahmed.
Obi, Baba-Ahmed inviting insurrection,
Mohammed said both Obi and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.
Stressing that the election was credible, he faulted the reaction of Obi and his running mate, following the declaration of results.
The minister said: “Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.
“Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election.
”The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who want to be president of the country. Not only must he have the plurality of votes cast in an election, he must also have scored one-quarter of the votes cast in at least 25 states.
“Only the president-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of the entire votes cast in 29 states of the federation,” he said
The minister said Atiku who came second with 6.9 million votes was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states.
He said Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one quarter of votes cast in 15 states.
“You cannot win election in a poll where you came a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements.
“Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud, has not disowned his victory in Lagos,” he said.
Elaborating on his mission to the U.S., the minister said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition on the election.
He said the opposition, having lost in the election, were alleging fraud, calling for its cancellation and constitution of an interim government.
“We have come here to balance that skewed narratives and to tell the world unambiguously that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria are the fairest, most transparent and authentic in the history of Nigeria.
“The election is the most fair and credible because of the introduction of Bimodal Voters Verification System (BVAS) which I regard as a game changer.
“BVAS technology had helped to weed out ghost and illegal voters, eliminate multiple voting and return sanity to the elections.”
The minister said President Buhari delivered on his pledge to leave behind a legacy of free, fair and credible elections.
He noted that in fulfilment of the President’s pledge to restore sanity into the electoral process, he did not confer special advantage on any political party, including the APC, during the election.
He said the President ensured that nobody used the security agencies to rig the election in his favour but created a level-playing ground for the elections to take place.
“Proof of this resolution is that the President’s party lost the presidential election in Katsina, his home state.
”Equally, the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, lost in his state, Lagos, while the Chairman of the Party, Abdullahi Adamu, lost in Nasarawa state to the Labour Party”
“The Director-General of the Campaign Organisation of our party also lost to PDP in Plateau State
“Nothing gives these elections more credence than those facts because there was no rigging in states where our bigwigs come from,” he said
The minister added that APC lost in the four states with the highest number of votes in the elections – Katsina, Kano, Kaduna and Lagos even when they were the ruling party’s controlled states.
Mohammed said the allegations of fraud being bandied by the opposition and naysayers did not add up.
According to the minister, the controversy was generated because of the inability of INEC to upload the results of the presidential election in real time.
He said the controversy was unnecessary, adding that the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) was not a tool for collation results.
“Under our laws today, management of election results is manual and the court has ruled that INEC has the exclusive right to determine the mode of election, its collation and transmission.
“What happened on the 25th of February was that INEC observed that the results of the Presidential elections were not being viewed.
“INEC, suspecting a cyber attack, withheld the uploading of the results to preserve the integrity of the data.
“It immediately proceeded to float an alternative platform while asking its technicians to investigate what happened to its original portal.”
The minister explained further that it took about 9pm for the alternative portal to start working.
He said as soon as the original portal started working, the results were viewed from the two platforms.
“It is unfortunate that this is what the opposition is relying on to say the elections were rigged.
“So far, none of the political parties has come out to say that what is on Form EC8A is different from what was uploaded on IREV,” he said.
On delay in delivering election materials to certain areas, the minister said it was difficult in a country as diverse and complex as Nigeria for election materials to arrive at the same time everywhere.
He said with 176,846 polling units scattered all over the country with different topography, it would be difficult to deliver the materials simultaneously.
“In some areas, you need to use donkeys, human portals and boats to access some of these difficult areas. We also know the challenge of an unanticipated cash crunch that slowed down logistic movements.
“The redesigning of the naira did not help matters because some of the people who transported the materials insisted of cash payment which was not available,” he said.
Mohammed said the Police report identified pockets of violence scattered all over the country but they were not substantial enough to discredit the polls.
Quoting the Police report, the minister said there were 489 cases of electoral infractions during the election and 781 electoral offenders that would be charged.
Mohammed said it was a ratio of one infraction in over 300 polling units which was not sufficient to void the elections.
He said the utterance was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary, and by implication, the rest of the democratic polity.
Soyinka blasts Baba-Ahmed
Soyinka faulted the comments by Baba-Ahmed, who claimed that INEC erred in declaring Tinubu the winner and issuing him a certificate of return, was against the constitution and that swearing him in would mark the end of democracy.
The Nobel Laureate, in a statement titled: “Media Responsibility”, also condemned the physical violence inflicted on those designated ‘strangers’ in Lagos in the lead-up to, and during governorship elections.
The statement reads in parts: “What I have read – at least, thus far – this morning, extracted from a one-and-a-half-long interview, conducted a week ago with Channels, brings once more to the fore, the critical responsibility of the media in transmitting the spoken, even recorded – word to the public.
“This is especially crucial in a time of civic uncertainty. When remarks are taken out of context, spliced into a new one, or provided a sensational headline, distortions become stamped on public receptivity, and the central intent of one’s remarks becomes completely unrecognisable.
“I denounced the menacing utterances of a Vice-Presidential aspirant as unbecoming. It was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity.”
Obi to Mohammed: Your accusations fictitious, malicious
Obi, in a statement via his Twitter handle, said he had in the past few days observed various campaigns of calumny directed at his person, with the latest being allegations attributed to the information minister.
He added: “It is most unfortunate that these consistent efforts to portray me quite contrary to what I am, and my core values, is coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious.
“I have never discussed or encouraged anyone to undermine the Nigerian state; I have never sponsored or preached any action against the Nigerian state. Those initiating these actions have increasingly used their official positions and agents to make false allegations against me.
“I have never discussed or encouraged anyone to undermine the Nigerian state; I have never sponsored or preached any action against the Nigerian state. Those initiating these actions have increasingly used their official positions and agents to make false allegations against me.
”I am on record as always, advocating for peace and issue-based campaign and never campaigned based on ethnicity or religion. I am committed to due process, and presently seeking redress in the Court.
”I urge those engaged in this demarketing process to stop presenting Nigeria in such bad light. Our future generations deserve a new Nigeria, where they can live a secure and decent life like their counterparts in other climes. It is possible. –PO”
Also, Head of Obi Datti Media Office, Diran Onifade, in a statement, denied that Obi was behind any call for an insurrection and the installation of an interim government.
He said: “It is most unfortunate that at a time when the call for an interim government has been roundly rejected in Nigeria, that the minister who is well known for unfettered propaganda and untruths has taken these pressing national issues to Washington DC for the sole purpose of delegitimising Peter Obi.
“This is unbecoming and part of well-orchestrated efforts by the APC and some Government agents to discredit Mr Obi locally and internationally. We condemn in totality the ridiculous action of Minister Lai Mohammed.
“This sorry episode regrettably is coming days after the so-called leaked tape of Peter Obi’s purported conversation with Pastor David Oyedepo, which no doubt was the handiwork of deep state agents engaged in deep fake activities.
”We want to state very categorically that Mr Peter Obi has never, either during the campaign or after the stolen mandate, called for insurrection or an interim government. He campaigned on the promise of a new Nigeria, devoid of bigotry and ethnicity.”
LP chairman Abure, in a separate statement, claimed that Obi was the only candidate whose campaign was issues based during the election.
The statement reads in part: “Let me state categorically that there is no basis for that admonition. Our presidential candidate is a peaceful and law-abiding person. Despite the fact that the election was provocatively rigged, he decided to be peaceful and toe the path of justice.
“This in spite of all pressures from our supporters to move into the street to protest the outcome of the general election and to reclaim the mandate freely given to our candidate by the people, he has decided to calm the nerves in other to give the judicial process a chance.”
