Peter Obi Calls Leaked ‘Religious War’ Audio ’Fake And Doctored’

Peter Obi, Labour Party candidate for the recently held presidential election, said that the leaked audio, where he allegedly talks about religious war, is fake and doctored.

In Obi's allegedly leaked audio, he can be heard talking to the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, and asking for his help to encourage Christians in the South-West and Kwara State to support him during the presidential elections, which was held on Feb. 25.

After the audio surfaced on social media on Saturday, Obi took to Twitter on Wednesday to clarify that during his "issue-based campaign," he never encouraged people to vote on the basis of "tribe or religion."

"Before, during, and after the campaign, it is on record that I have maintained my commitment and focus on an issue-based campaign about a New Nigeria," he wrote and then added, "I repeatedly stated that no one should vote for me based on Tribe or Religion, but rather on the assessment of Character, Competence, Capacity, Credibility, and Compassion that can be trusted to create a New Nigeria!"

Obi claimed that these "present attempts," hinting that the audio leak was made by the All Progressives Congress (APC) party and the APC-led government to divert people's attention from a "blatantly stolen mandate," adding that it is unfortunate and sad.

The 61-year-old former governor of Anambra State further shared that some government officials and agencies "have come and continued to manifest in different ways, such as the malicious accusation of the Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, the circulation of a fake doctored audio call, and a pressure on me to leave the country."

Obi mentioned that the audio call being circulated is fake, claiming that throughout the campaign or even now, he never said, thought, or implied that the presidential election was a "religious war."

The former governor noted that these are "very sad and wicked,"attempts to manipulate Nigerians, revealing that his legal team will be taking appropriate legal actions.

"While we call on all concerned Nigerians and the International Community to implore the APC and the APC Led-government to stop their nasty attacks, my focus and commitment to lawfully and peacefully retrieve our mandate to secure and unite our Nation, take Nigeria from consumption to production, pull millions of Nigerians out of multidimensional poverty, especially in the North, and jumpstart prosperity through agricultural, industrial, and technological revolution remain unchanged," he continued.

In the concluding lines, Obi tweeted that elections are over and he is fighting a legal battle against the president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu in order to retrieve his party's stolen mandate.

Obi suggested rather than dividing the country, creating tensions, and spreading hatred, political parties should focus on addressing critical issues such as flawed electoral processes, the parlous state of our economy, unsustainable debt burden, lamentable unemployment and inflation, insecurity, and multi-dimensional poverty.

The former governor has filed a petition to challenge Tinubu's victory in the recently held presidential elections last month.