FACT CHECK: How true is Adamu Garba’s claim that Peter Obi failed to visit Muslim leaders in North?

CLAIM: A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Adamu Garba, some days ago, claimed that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi, is visiting majorly Christian areas in the Northern region, while also neglecting Islamic leaders in his Northern tours.

VERDICT: Largely false

FULL TEXT

Peter Obi, who is a third horse in the 2023 presidential election seems to have captured the youth demography of Nigeria’s population, who consider him an outlier in the political class. He has toured many states of the country, promising hope and change, as his candidacy continues to gain momentum. Although the Southern region is his strongest hold.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that he has visited all the Northwestern states, many of the states in the Northeast and North Central. His reception, judging by the crowd at his rallies, has been quite impressive.

Meanwhile, Adamu Garba, in a Twitter post argued that Obi was sidelining the Muslims in his campaign as he purportedly fails to visit notable Islamic leaders known as Emirs in the North.

He wrote: “Peter Obi is playing dangerous religious game in the North. All his recent Northern tours are targeted at predominantly Christian areas. He needs to know that he cannot export his IPOB games to the North.

“The North is a United Muslims $ Christian domain. He can’t divide us. He and his cohorts, in addition to his collaborators cannot set us against one another. This has been the game of Obasanjo for a long time.

“He tried it for 8 years and could not succeed, he attempted to use Jonathan but failed. Now is Peter Obi, we know & we’ll not accept this.

“If you want to be a president, go everywhere. But we noticed whatever games Obi is playing.

“He went to Kano, visited Sabon Gari, without homage to Emirs, went to Kaduna, neglected Emir of Zazzau, went to Yola, didn’t visit Lamido or Mubi Emir. It has been the trend. Divisions!

“Peter Obi is pushing a very dangerous agenda that is capable of affecting the whole country. We can’t allow that to happen.

“Nigerians need to see the games in the plain sight. This is very bad precedent. He is working to divide the Muslims and Christians. It is not acceptable.”

VERIFICATION

Contrary to Garba’s claim, Peter Obi did visit Emirs in most of the Northern States he visited. Although, he had visited some of them before the campaign started proper. Also during his campaign rallies, apart from the one that held in Southern Kaduna, it is debatable whether the other rallies in the Northern states held in Christian populated areas as claimed by Garba.

READ ALSO:FACT CHECK: Did Nigeria’s exchange rate rise from N200 to N800 under PDP as Tinubu claimed?

Below is a list of Emirs in the north visited by Peter Obi.

September, 2022: He and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, visited the Emir of Kano, HRM Aminu Ado Bayero.

September, 2022: He and his running mate visited the Emir of Gaya also in Kano State, Alhaji Aliyu Ibrahim.

October, 2022: Both of them visited the Emir of Bauchi, HRH Dr. Rilwanu Suleiman Adamu,

October, 2022: They visited the Emir of Lafia in Nasarawa State.

December, 2022: He visited the Emir of Muri in Jalingo, Taraba State

January, 2023: Both of them visited Nuhu Mohammadu Sanusi, the Emir of Dutse in Jigawa State.

January, 2023: They visited Umar Farouq Bahago, the Emir of Minna in Niger State

February, 2023: Obi visited the Sultan of Sokoto. Although this was after Garba’s post.

CONCLUSION

Just like the other major candidates, Obi has not visited all the Emirs in Northern Nigeria, but he has visited a number of them.

By Oluwatobi Odeyinka

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