Intrigues As Audio Tape Saga Unites Tinubu, Atiku’s Men Against Obi

Supporters of Peter Obi were on Sunday evening fighting back as critics of the Labour Party presidential candidate led by spokesmen of his main rivals, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar were moving in to kill off his political credibility over a trending audio tape allegedly from a phone call with Bishop David Oyedepo.

GWG.ng reports that Oyedepo has denied giving support to any presidential candidate and Obi’s campaign has dismissed the audio tape as fake and doctored. However, life came into the issue after one of the spokesmen of the Labour Party presidential candidate passed off the fact that there was a tape which, but said what came out from the leak was doctored.

Head, Obi-Datti Media Office, Diran Onifade, in a statement in Abuja, on Sunday, dismissed the audio as deep fake and a product of the propaganda machinery of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

In the voice said to be of Obi, he was heard telling Oyedepo, “Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara.”

Reacting to the controversy, Onifade said:

“It appears the All Progressives Congress’ desperation to grab and retain power by foul means has refused to go away more than a month after they have grabbed the election as they planned.

“While we are toeing the constitutional path to retrieve our mandate, those who have truncated the wishes of the majority of Nigerians have recoursed to mischief and endless subterfuge to continue to hold on to what they know does not belong to them.

“From the show of shame in Portharcourt to the drama in the Ibom Air aircraft, both of which they contrived, they have now moved to the circulation of a deep fake audio file aimed at promoting religious tension in the country.

“All these are meant to serve no other purpose than egregious mischief aimed at demarketing Peter Obi. If the goal is to create a credibility problem, the ploy has failed woefully.

“Peter Obi has long been on record as the only presidential candidate who has urged the Nigerians electorate not to vote for him on the basis of religion or tribe .

“We will therefore like to advice our beloved Nigerian people to remain focused on the task to take back the mandate we know was freely given to Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed through legitimate means.

“That is more important than to expect those who ran election on forged credentials and even fake Bishops to stop faking. They cannot stop being fraudulent because that is who they are.”

Confusion was, however, stirred when Kenneth Okonkwo, a spokesman of the Labour Party candidate said the audio existed but was taken out of context.

He said in a series of tweets: “Our attention has been drawn to the publication of this audio tape of private conversation between @PeterObi 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 Christiendom because the politicians of the other party is carrying on this campaign as if it is a religious war.

He further explained that the traditional ruler of Offa, the Olofa of Offa, who is a Muslim, advised Obi to get the support of Oyedepo and be assured of his own support. This, he said, happened during a visit to the traditional ruler.

“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.” Okwonkwo added.

However, spokesmen of Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu were on Sunday united in what many saw as a move to eclipse Obi.

Festus Keyamo, the official spokesperson of the APC Presidential campaign digging in against Obi and his supporters, tweeted:

His tweet was complemented by tweets by Bayo Onanuga, media director in the campaign who also retweeted tweets by others to ridicule Obi.

Joining the fray, Reno Omokri an aide of Atiku Abubakar who once hailed Peter Obi as one of the best prospects for the Nigerian presidency entered the fray hitting Obi thus:

However, key supporters of Obi including the Lagos Party governorship candidate of Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour were not moved countering with assertions of the audio tape as another propaganda move by the APC.

He said:

Another supporter tweeted thus:

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