The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has been described as “Nigeria’s most dangerous and divisive politician.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council said Obi anchored his campaign on religion and ethnicity.
The Adviser on Media and Communication of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, said this at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, March 3, 2023.
Alake said: “For Obi, he would go down as Nigeria’s most dangerous and divisive politician. He elevated his well-known clannish mentality to a most unfortunate height by openly anchoring his campaign on religion and ethnicity.
“He presented himself as a poster boy for and a champion of our country’s fault lines. He took advantage of our youths whose expectations are fast paced, who are uninterested in excuses, and who were in search of a hero.
“He pumped up their sentiments and rode on their emotions while grandstanding as a saviour. It was a false pretence. Obi’s credentials are eternally stained as a former governor with no remarkable legacy.
“As we look forward to an encounter with both the PDP and LP at the court, we want to enjoin the two of them to pursue their grievances with decorum. They should encourage their members, supporters, and ethnic and religious consultants to follow the path of the rule of law.”
The APC-PCC questioned the basis on which Obi said he won the February 25 Presidential election.
“Not a few of our youths thought Peter Obi looked like the leader they wanted and many of them could not tolerate any form of scrutiny of their newfound hero. They chose wilfully to canonise him while insisting no one should ask questions. The combination of the disgruntled youths, the ethnic champions, and commercial clerics were the reason Obi thought he could win a presidential election in Nigeria. Such illogic is not strange to the Labour Party.
“If Labour Party could not fill up its quota for polling booth agents with a shortfall of over 40, 000, how did it intend to compete with political parties like APC and PDP? It would be interesting to see what evidence of rigging Labour Party will present before the court when the party could not appoint agents to monitor nearly a quarter of the venues of election,” Alake said.
He stated that the 2023 presidential election produced unprecedented outcomes and defied conventions, noting that the deployment and use of the BVAS machines was the only reason the elections produced strange outcomes and upsets in many states of the federation.
Alake said the APC’s loss of Katsina and Lagos to PDP and LP respectively, which he said was contrary to expectations, occurred due to the use of the BVAS.
Obi is challenging the outcome of the election that produced Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-Elect.
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