Festus Keyamo, the All Progressives Congress campaign council’s director of media and public affairs and official spokesperson, claimed on Monday that Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi planned to stage an assassination attempt on himself and hire some supporters to attack some of his party offices while they were dressed in APC hats and T-shirts.
Even as this was happening, the minister of state for labor and employment accused the former governor of Anambra of disseminating a hateful video online to discredit Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC’s presidential candidate.
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The assertion was made by Keyamo in a statement released on Monday, September 12, in Abuja.
Keyamo further pressed Obi to identify the source and person(s) responsible for the ambiguous WhatsApp message while pointing out that it was clear Obi had created the message on purpose and disseminated the inflammatory video himself as part of a campaign strategy.
The accusation comes shortly after the Labour Party’s national officers, trade unions, and party candidates concluded a two-day retreat.
The statement partly read;
Our attention has been drawn to an offensive, hate-filled video made and circulated by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, in which he accused an amorphous and non-existent “Tinubu’s Group” of spreading a WhatsApp message calling on the Yoruba people not to vote for him. The purported message, according to Mr. Obi, forewarned the Yoruba that a vote for Obi would be a vote for a seaport in South-South and South-East.
We are also aware that plans are afoot by Mr. Peter Obi to fake an assassination attempt on himself and hire Labour Party boys dressed in the APC caps and T-shirts to attack some Labour Party offices. It is all part of the “US Plan”. It is the first in a series of incendiary actions planned by this ill-prepared but desperate candidate.
Firstly, we vehemently deny the existence of any of such “Tinubu group” that made and circulated such a message. All groups supporting the APC presidential candidate and his running-mate have clear designations with well-known promoters. In addition, it is only messages released by the APC Presidential Campaign Council that are officially authorised and for which we take responsibility.
As the takeoff date for campaigns draw closer, Mr. Peter Obi has suddenly realised that Nigerians are beginning to burst his bubbles as his messages are bereft of ideas, depth and clear-cut solutions to our challenges. His messages are only full of false data and highfalutin jargons in what is clearly a disingenuous ruse to distract a scrutiny of his empty records as a Governor of Anambra State and nothing else. Hence, his easy recourse to playing ethnic card and fanning the ember of hate.
We call on all well-meaning Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic origins or political divides, to rise up and condemn this tactless tactics and cheap maneuver by a desperate non-starter of a presidential candidate who has decided to resort to crude revisionism, ethnic jingoism and crass insensitivity with a view to whipping up undeserved sentiment to fuel his faltering ambition that is nothing but a flash in a pan. Our advice to Mr. Peter Obi is to quit the race if he has nothing more to tell Nigerians.
