APC tackles Obi over ‘false narrative’ on Nigeria’s election

The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council on Friday accused the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, of planning to steal the mandate of President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, through the back door.

Obi and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, had rejected the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the election and challenged the process in court.

In a statement issued in Abuja, the council’s Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, accused the Labour Party candidate of making inflammatory remarks on the election.

Onanuga, who said the former Anambra State governor lost woefully in the election, alleged that he had resorted to tribal sentiments in the bid to snatch what does not belong to him.

He, therefore, urged security agencies to caution him on the incendiary comments.

The statement read: “The defeated Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, goes around inflaming passions, spreading lies as if he is still campaigning for the highest office in the land, weeks after the exercise was concluded and a winner announced.

“We are worried about his recent media rounds on Arise TV and Channels TV, in which he made profoundly misleading, criminally false and inciting statements about the election that he lost woefully.

“We call on the security agencies to caution him from further making incendiary remarks, especially after he claimed he is challenging the results of the election in the tribunal.

READ ALSO: Obi dismisses rumours on planned #ENDINEC protest, blames ‘opposition’

“From the false narrative Obi has been pushing, he is the one trying to steal Bola Tinubu’s mandate, by appealing unashamedly to tribal and religious sentiments and by resorting to his sickening penchant for lying boldfaced to snatch what does not belong to him.

“We consider Obi’s TV statements as prejudicial to the case he has filed and contemptuous of the court. Only a desperate politician like Obi will embark on his course of action: seeking justice in court and simultaneously embarking on a mission of blackmailing and intimidating the judiciary.

“He is trying to present himself before his case takes off in court as a helpless, cheated victim of the ‘system’, robbed of a mandate by INEC. He is trying to position himself as the candidate ‘who won the people’, who is loved by the people, going by his self-serving definition of democracy.

“Finally we advise Mr. Obi to stop attacking the integrity of the election just because he did not win the majority votes and the constitutional spread in 24 states. He should stop deceiving his gullible followers and raising unrealistic hopes about reclaiming the presidency from Asiwaju Tinubu.

“We also advise the NBC to caution TV houses giving Obi the platform to de-legitimise a free and fair election when he has taken his case to court.”

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