The Federal Government has said it is “treason” for the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi to incite people to violence over the outcome of the February 25 presidential elections.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said this in Washington DC during his official engagements with international media organizations.
NAN reports that Mohammed has so far engaged with outlets like the Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press, and Foreign Policy Magazine.
According to him, it is treason for Obi and Datti to be threatening that if the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. But Obi and the Labour Party have since debunked the allegation.
“Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed, cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 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,” Mohammed said.
According to the minister, both Peter Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.
“The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country.
“Not only must he have the plurality of votes cast in an election, but he must also have scored one-quarter of 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 all the vote cast in 29 states of the federation,”.
The minister said Atiku came second with 6.9 million votes but was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states.
He said Mr. Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one-quarter of the votes cast in 15 states.
“You cannot win an election in a poll where you came to a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements.
“Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud, has not disowned his victory in Lagos,”.
Elaborating on his mission to the U.S., Mr. Mohammed said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition to the election.
He said the opposition, having lost in the election, was alleging fraud, calling for its cancellation and constitution of an interim government.
“We have come here to balance that biased 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 fairest and most credible because of the introduction of the 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,” Mr. Mohammed said.
Relying on the INEC report, the minister said BVAS, during the polls, worked 97 percent giving unparalleled credibility to the elections
But in response to the minister’s condemnation, Obi warned the FG to desist from making false allegations against him, stating that he had never sponsored or encouraged anybody to stoke the ember of insurrection in the country.
Obi, who tweeted via his official Twitter handle, said “In the past few days, I have observed various campaigns of slander directed at my person, with the latest being allegations attributed to the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed from Washington DC,” he said. “It is most unfortunate that these consistent efforts to portray me quite contrary to what I am, and my core values, are coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious.”
He also noted that “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.
