Following the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has been in the eye of the storm lately. ADEBAYO FOLORUNSHO-FRANCIS takes a cursory look at the drama which reached a climax recently with audio recording, which the presidential candidate has described as fake

Like or hate him, the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has changed the narration of the just concluded election with the flurry of votes and results he amassed in different categories of the polls.

To its credit, the Labour Party today has seven senators-elect and 34 House of Representatives-elect waiting to be inaugurated. It is no secret that the majority of these lawmakers rode on Obi’s back to win their respective seats.

Despite having no structure and losing the presidential election in what political pundits described as a controversial manner, Obi’s victory, especially in Lagos, was an earthquake many did not see coming.

His message of transparency and accountability resonated well with the youth population of the Millennial and Gen-Z under the umbrella of the Obidient Movement.

Aside from decimating the stronghold of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-East and South through his fairy-tale run in the poll, his ‘happy-ending’ ambition was however cut short by the deluge of results from the North-West and North-East, which proved to be his Achilles heel.

The standard bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who was declared as the eventual winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Obi who garnered 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes at the poll respectively.

But Atiku and Obi rejected the results announced by INEC, with each claiming at separate press conferences that the election was fraught with violence and massive rigging.

A teary Obi, who felt INEC didn’t do justice to the results by failing to show the results in real-time, announced on a number of political programmes that he would reclaim his ‘stolen’ mandate by going to the court as being directed.

A first-timer viewer, who was just seeing some of the television interviews he had, can see through his pain, anguish and agony even as he struggled to address certain allegations about running a political campaign that was thriving in religiosity and ethnicity.

His Vice Presidential Candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, also came under fire last month when he was featured on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ and made some comments considered incendiary.

The North-West politician had warned the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) not to hand over to the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on May 29, otherwise it would signal the ‘end of democracy.’

A furious Baba-Ahmed also stated that the INEC certificate of return issued to the president-elect by INEC was a ‘dud cheque’ that remains null and void.

According to him, the call for the cancellation of the poll was necessitated by the fact that Tinubu failed to amass 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory, which was one of the prerequisites needed before a winner of the presidential election can be declared.

The statement by the LP vice presidential candidate consequently cost the TV station a fine of N5m by the National Broadcasting Corporation.

The penalty was spurred by a petition written to NBC by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, who felt the station didn’t do enough to stop Baba-Ahmed

The N5m penalty came at a period when the Defence Headquarters and the Directorate of State Service had raised the alarm about the activities of some political elements pushing for the cancellation of the May 29 handing over the ceremony while an interim national government to be put in place by the outgoing administration.

While the legal proceeding at the Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal had yet to start, the drama took a twist following a leaked phone conversation purportedly between Obi and the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo.

Clearly, one can easily tell that the discussion in the alleged audio must have happened a few days before the February 25 presidential poll.

In the viral audio, the LP poster boy was heard pleading with Oyedepo to help sway the full support of Christians in the South-West and Kwara State.

While stating that he was already working on winning votes in Kogi and Niger states, the former Anambra governor allegedly described the 2023 presidential election as a “religious war” that must be won in the purported conversation.

The fiery brand preacher was heard saying, “In Jesus’ name, we are going to get a bright tomorrow.”

In response, an emotional Obi replied, “Amen Daddy. When I hear these prayers, it is very dear to me and like I keep saying, if this thing works, you people will never regret the support.”

Continuing the conversation, the cleric said, “We look forward to God’s intervention,” to which the Labour Party candidate quickly responded, “Thank you, Daddy. Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the Southwest and Kwara. The Christians in the Southwest and Kwara. This is a religious war.”

Although one of Obi’s spokespersons, Kenneth Okonkwo partially admitted that the conversation happened, he argued that it was doctored to fit the narrative that the LP standard bearer is a religious and ethnic bigot.

Another aide of Obi, Valentine Obienyem specifically claimed that ‘our Nnewi prodigal brother’ is responsible for the leak. To date, the Nnewi brother has yet to be unmasked.

A former aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, who was one of Obi’s biggest critics, relished the moment.

For weeks, the social media influencer made a series of satirical tweets to mock the former governor who he repeatedly called a ‘liar’ and a ‘desperate’ politician.

PUNCH