The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has described the allegation of treason leveled against him by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, as the height of rascality.
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Recall that Mohammed recently made the allegation during a chat with international journalists in Washington DC in the United States of America. Mohammed accused Obi of inciting people to violence over the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, saying it was treasonable.
“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. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins election,” he said.
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Speaking in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, May 1, Obi condemned the allegation, even as he berated the Federal government over the resources expended towards the media rounds where Mohammed made the claim.
“That is the height of rascality. It was even announced in Washington. I committed a treasonable offence and I’m in Onitsha, and my minister went to announce it in Washington. This is the waste in governance we are talking about and people don’t want to understand. The amount it cost Nigeria for him to go and announce that in Washington can build a block of six classrooms in a primary school. I’m sure if you go to his village there are so many places where children don’t even have desk or classrooms to go to school.
Instead of using that money for this purpose, he went to Washington to announce treason against someone in Onitsha. He doesn’t need to do that. From there he went to London, announcing the same thing when I’m in Nigeria. He should have come to see me or invited me and tell me my offense,” Obi said.
The former Anambra state governor also denied claims that he recently paid a visit to President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
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A few days ago, some Nigerians circulated a photoshopped picture of Tinubu and Obi together with claims that Obi had gone to meet Tinubu to settle their political differences. Obi is currently in court to challenge the emergence of Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential election.
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Reacting to the claims, Obi said;
‘’I never visited him (Tinubu). I didn’t. These are some of the things I have been telling you. They have turned the whole thing upside down. So, what they (the opposition) do now is think about what they are going to do to cause issues and what they are going to do to label him (Obi) this or that.
If it is not labelling him (Obi) tribal bigot, or religious bigot when he is not speaking, they will find his family and check whether he has a lovechild and all sorts of things, including misrepresented identity among others. I didn’t visit anybody.’’
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He also addressed claims that he was arrested and detained in the UK. He explained that the immigration officers only stopped him for questioning over duplication of identity and that the whole questioning lasted for just 20 minutes.
