Peter Obi under intense pressure to abandon court case, leave Nigeria or be framed for inciting insurrection and arrested – Yunusa, LP Spokesperson

The Labour Party (LP) Presidential Candidate in the February 25, 2023, election, Mr. Peter Obi, is coming under intense pressure from forces linked to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to leave the country or be arrested on false charges of inciting insurrection in the country, according to Dr Tanko Yunusa, Chief Spokesperson, Obi-Datti Campaign Council.

Dr. Yunusa, in a statement said: “in the past few weeks, Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in the February 25th, 2023 presidential election has been contacted by associates, elder statesmen, family and friends with concerns for his personal safety.

“These concerns have increased intensely in the last few days as immense pressure has been mounted directly on Mr. Obi to leave the country, no doubt from sources allied to the All-Progressives Congress (APC) and its agents in the security services. Mr. Obi has been repeatedly and categorically told that he has a choice to leave the country or face the prospect of being arrested on false charges of inciting insurrection in the country.”

In the statement titled “Disturbing Emerging Developments in Nigeria!” Dr. Yunusa noted that “state institutions have become part of a well calculated, deliberate and orchestrated campaign of calumny by the APC to discredit and delegitimize Mr. Peter Obi and compel him to abandon his right to seek redress in court following the outcome of the last election which was adjudged both locally and internationally to have failed to meet any standard of credibility or fairness.”

The spokesman said that as part of the “grand design, they are circulating a fake doctored audio call” with the intension of widening the religious and ethnic gulf in the country, using some unsuspecting clerics.

He insisted that “at no time throughout the campaign and now did Mr. Peter Obi ever say, think or even imply that the 2023 election is or was a religious war.,” pointing out that the Labour Party’s legal team “has been instructed to take appropriate legal actions against Peoples Gazette and others” for the “fake audio call” whose contents he said, “have been translated to other Nigerian languages and circulated in most parts of Northern Nigeria with some of our Moslem clerics deceived and instigated to use the contents for their sermons at various Mosques during the usual Friday prayers.”

Yunusa said that “this is a dangerous development at a time when the APC led-government and the APC party which have been awarded undeserved and unfair victory should be more concerned in addressing the ethnic and religious frictions unfortunately created by the outcome of the elections.

“Yet unsatisfied but determined to cause more problems, Mr. Lai Mohammed, who fancies himself as modern day Goebbbels is on a tour of some selected countries to present an alternative story about the 2023 discredited election, and from his first statement in Washington has assumed the role of the courts by stating that Mr. Obi has no pathway to victory. This is a direct intimidation of the courts and a waste of taxpayers’ money (Nigeria’s money).

“There are many more campaigns of calumny against Mr. Peter Obi planned for the near future both before and during the court process. However, we want to make it clear to the APC party, APC led-government and its agents that Mr. Peter Obi, a widely traveled man has no intention to leave the country at this time irrespective of the pressure on him and his family. He is determined as he had stated in his first and only press conference after the election to challenge the outcome of the election and the process has begun. It is his fundamental right!”

Yunusa said further that while they call on Nigerians and the International Community to caution the APC and the APC led-government “to stop their nasty attacks, Mr. Peter Obi’s focus and commitment to lawfully and peacefully retrieve our mandate to secure and unite our Nation, take Nigeria from consumption to production, pull millions of Nigerians out of multidimensional poverty especially in the North and jumpstart prosperity through agricultural, industrial and technological revolution remains unchanged.”

The spokesman pointed out that Mr. Obi has continued to impress upon his supporters “the essence of the legal process and will not now or in the future encourage any violence against the state.”

Obi, he continued, has “absolutely no reason for this nor desperate especially as throughout the campaign, he called for a new Nigeria defined by opportunities for all, an end to poverty and criminality in government, especially corruption and an end to tribal and religious division and bigotry.

It is for these reasons, Yunusa said, “that we appeal to revered religious leaders especially in the North not to be part of the grand design of the state apparatus to further increase the religious and ethnic divide in the country.

“Irrespective of the outcome of the court process, we have the obligation to strive for the peace and co-existence of all Nigerians. We call on President Buhari to rein in his desperate officials at all levels as their actions or inactions could lead to unnecessary crisis in the country.

“Elections are over, and we are in court to retrieve our stolen mandate. Let me reiterate that we are doing so through all lawful and peaceful options in line with our legal system and constitution, and I continue to implore all Nigerians to remain peaceful and law abiding.

“Those fixated with heating up the polity, creating divisions, tensions and hatred within and outside Nigeria should remember that Nigeria is our only country. Our focus should be on how to address the litany of challenges facing us such as deliberate non-adherence to election process, parlous state of our economy, unsustainable debt burden, lamentable unemployment and inflation, insecurity and multi-dimensional poverty. A New Nigeria is Indeed Possible and God will help us,” he stressed.