The Federal Government on Tuesday said the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, risked being prosecuted for treason over some of their utterances on the February 25 presidential election.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who gave the warning in Washington, United States on Tuesday, said Obi and Baba-Ahmed’s statements amounted to insurrection.

He added that Obi and his running mate were inciting people to violence over the outcome of the poll.

But the LP candidate and the Peoples Democratic Party refuted the allegations, describing them as reckless.

The PDP and the LP warned the FG against toying with the idea of arresting the ex-governor of Anambra State.

Since the All Progressives Congress candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was declared as the president-elect, having polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Obi, who got 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes, respectively, the LP candidate and his running mate have been faulting the electoral process.

Despite filing petitions challenging the election result at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Obi and Baba-Ahmed have insisted on the cancellation of the poll which they claimed was characterised by rigging and violence.

In a recent interview on national television, Baba-Ahmed asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to swear in the President-elect on May 29 while some of their supporters had called for the interim national government.

But addressing some media organisations and think tanks on the election at the US capital, the minister said it was wrong for Obi to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and in another breath incite people to violence.

Alleged threat

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Mohammed stated, “Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress 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. Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election.”

The minister said in challenging the election result, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi or Atiku.

According to the minister, both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.

“The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country. Not only must he have the plurality of votes cast in an election, but he must also have scored one-quarter of the votes cast in at least 25 states.

“Only the president-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79m votes and having one-quarter of all the votes cast in 29 states of the federation,” he further stated.

The minister said Atiku who came second with 6.9m votes was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states, adding that Obi came third with 6.1m votes but won only one-quarter of votes cast in 15 states.

“You cannot win an election in a poll where you came to a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements.

“Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud, has not disowned his victory in Lagos,” he said.

Elaborating on his mission to the US, the minister said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition about the election.

He said the opposition, having lost in the election, was alleging fraud, calling for its cancellation and constitution of the interim government.

“We have come here to balance that skewed narratives and to tell the world unambiguously that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria are the fairest, most transparent and authentic in the history of Nigeria.

“The election is the fairest and most credible because of the introduction of the Bimodal Voters Verification System, which I regard as a game-changer. BVAS technology had helped weed out ghost and illegal voters, eliminate multiple voting and return sanity to the elections,’’ he told his audience.

The minister defended the BVAS, which he said functioned 97 per cent giving unparalleled credibility to the elections.

But in response to the minister’s reprimand, Obi warned the FG to desist from making false allegations against him, stating that he had never sponsored or encouraged anybody to stoke the ember of insurrection in the country.

Obi, who tweeted via his official Twitter handle, said, “In the past few days, I have observed various campaigns of calumny directed at my person, with the latest being allegations attributed to the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, from Washington DC.

“It is most unfortunate that this consistent effort to portray me quite contrary to what I am, and my core values, is coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious.

“I have never discussed or encouraged anyone to undermine the Nigerian state; I have never sponsored or preached any action against the Nigerian state. Those initiating these actions have increasingly used their official positions and agents to make false allegations against me.

“I am on record as always, advocating for peace and issue-based campaigns and never campaigned based on ethnicity or religion. I am committed to due process, and presently seeking redress in court.

“I urge those engaged in this demarketing process to stop presenting Nigeria in such a bad light. Our future generations deserve a new Nigeria, where they can live a secure and decent life like their counterparts in other climes. It is possible.”

‘Minister reckless’

Also in a statement in Awka, the Anambra State capital, Obi described Muhammed’s trip to the US and the statement as reckless.

“Such reckless behaviour, sponsored with taxpayers’ money, was among the reasons those countries often do not take Nigeria seriously,” he said.

While urging Nigerians to always remain law-abiding, Obi stated “I’m on record, as always, advocating peace and issue-based campaign, not a campaign based on ethnicity or religion.”

In his own reaction, the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, said he was disappointed with the minister’s utterances.

While pointing out that only the LP candidate’s campaign was issues-based, Abure described him as a ‘peaceful and law-abiding person.’

According to him, the FG’s admonition which should have been directed at the ruling party and their spokespersons was done in bad taste.

He said, “Let me state categorically that there is no basis for that admonition. Our presidential candidate is a peaceful and law-abiding person. Despite the fact that the election was provocatively rigged, he decided to be peaceful and toe the part of justice.”

Also, the PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, warned the government not to flirt with the temptation of arresting the former Anambra State governor.

According to Abdullahi, arresting Obi “will be detrimental to national peace and development. That line of thought (possible arrest) is as senseless as it is ill-advised.”

But speaking with our correspondent, the APC Director of Media, Bala Ibrahim, remarked that the LP standard bearer could not be bigger than the law of the land, saying he should be cautioned by the security agencies over his incendiary statements.

Ibrahim warned that if the United States, which is seen as the beacon of democracy could prosecute former president Donald Trump, “Why do people fear that Nigeria would burn if Obi is apprehended by security agencies?

They risk nada! They have every right to be aggrieved. God will punish all the mod restricting me from commenting. I never insulted anybody and my comment keeps getting deleted. U stupid mod keeps on enabling anti tinubu tread, but any comment against such tread will be banned by antibot.

Tinubu APC’s Muslim-Muslim Ticket Is Call To Jihad, Shows Supremacy Of Islam To Christianity In Nigeria – Kano Preacher, Auwal, Tells Congregation To Vote Massively for Tinubu to declare Jihad on Christians if he wins.

At a special prayer session organised by Muslim clerics in Kano, Northwest, Nigeria, for the success of Bola Tinubu's candidacy, Auwal informed that the Tinubu/Shettima’s Muslim/Muslim ticket had defined the supremacy of Islam.

A Nigerian Islamic preacher, Abdulmutallab Mohammed Auwal, has charged Muslims to consider the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its Muslim/Muslim ticket as a call to Jihad.

Auwal informed that the Tinubu/Shettima’s Muslim/Muslim ticket had defined the supremacy of Islam.He, accordingly urged all Muslim voters, to overwhelmingly vote the Tinubu/Shettima, Muslim/Muslim ticket on the day of election.

"The import of today's sitting is to let the clerics and indeed all Muslim leaders know that the Muslim/ Muslim ticket is not about mere promises of bringing dividends of democracy like road and infrastructure. This ticket is about the supremacy of Islam. This ticket has honoured Islam. Therefore, we'll honour it with our ballots.

"Furthermore, remember that a Muslim is always better than an infidel. What more of two Muslims combined? This informed why we undertook to create this awareness and to let all of us know that this Muslim/Muslim ticket is a jihad call to all Muslims," Auwal said.

Another cleric, who is the leader of Izala sect in Kano, Sheikh Abdallah Saleh Pakistan, disclosed that Tinubu had over a long time promoted the enthronement of a Muslim/Muslim candidate. He said, "We've discussed extensively on how this candidate (Tinubu) has for a long time strived to actualise the Muslim/Muslim ticket. He paired Nuhu Ribadu with a Muslim Yoruba back then and was also instrumental to the Abiola/Kingibe, Muslim/Muslim ticket."

On his part, Kano State Governor, Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, asserted that the Tinibu/Shettima ticket would be supported by all Muslims, insisting that the practice was not new in the country.

Apc’s Muslim-muslim Ticket Is Call To Jihad – Kano Islamic Preacher, Auwal.
https://saharareporters.com/2023/01/06/apcs-muslim-muslim-ticket-call-jihad-shows-supremacy-islam-nigeria-kano-preacher-auwal

The is the classical example of a highly treasonable and inflammatory statement, but nobody including Buhari, Tinubu, Shettima, Lai Mohammed, Nasir El-Rufai, Festus Keyamo, Femi Fani-Kayode, Dele Alake, Bayo Onanuga and all the zombies supporting this fraudulent government ever call for the arrest of the Islamic clerics.

I’m really expecting Apc to file a counter petition against Pandora..

Useless FG. . . .