With about 16 days to the commencement of campaigns ', presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi, have ignited another political fireworks over the activities of their supporters on the social media.
The bone of controversy this time around borders on posts on various social media handles by supporters of Obi, alleging that Tinubu is withdrawing from the 2023 presidential race on health grounds.
Miffed by the posts, the APC Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) yesterday debunked the said social media posts, describing them as the false and misleading.
In a statement issued by the APC campaign spokesperson and minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, Tinubu said the posts by members of the Obidient Movement were nothing but a figment of their warped imaginations.
Keyamo noted that Tinubu is strong, healthy and fit enough for the coming campaigns and the opposition will hear loud and clear from him soon.
He also unbraided the LP standard bearer for circulating a video in which he accused what the minister termed an amorphous and non-existent "Tinubu's group" of spreading a Whatsapp message calling on the Yoruba not to vote for the former Anambra state governor.
But firing back at the Tinubu camp, Obi's media aide, Emeka Obasi, described Keyamo's claims as fallacious.
Obasi said Obi "is not known for living fake life unlike Keyamo's principal."
He stated: "It is a fallacy! You media people should also know when you see something fallacious. Does Peter look like someone who pretends or fakes things? What do we gain to start faking assassination attempt? Are they in anyway trying to carry out such attempt and seeking on blaming Obi for it? The public deserves to know and that's what we should put up in the press.
"Does Keyamo knows more than we know and just using this opportunity to cry wolf? What is his plan for uttering this kind of stupid statement? Does he think Obi is part of the Old Order who are always desperate for power? Whenever he says 'Go and verify', does it look like scheming?
"But we are aware of what Keyamo has done before. It is not out of place for him to say things like Obi is attempting to fake his assassination attempt? It is a terrible thing to say."
Keyamo accused Obi of plotting to fake an assassination attempt on himself and hire Labour Party members clad in APC caps and T-shirts to attack some Labour Party offices.
Keyamo said, "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 not to vote for him. The purported message, according to Mr. Obi, forewarned the Yoruba that a vote for Peter Obi would be a vote for a seaport in South/South and South/East.
"For the avoidance of doubt, this is a transcript of the so-called message as relayed by Mr. Peter Obi: 'Yoruba shine your eyes o, if you vote for Peter Obi, it is automatically voting for seaports in South-South and South East. The Igbos will stop coming to Lagos State to invest, rather they will go to Delta and Rivers States, they may even stop building houses in Lagos. It will affect a lot of Yorubas. Yoruba ro nu o."
"First, 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 Presidential Campaign Council that are officially authorized and for which we take responsibility.
"We challenge Mr. Peter Obi to reveal the source and name(s) behind that nebulous Whatsapp message. We wish to state that it is obvious Mr. Peter Obi deliberately concocted that message and circulated that offensive video himself as a campaign strategy in order to come across as a victim of some kind of ethnic agenda, whereas in truth, he is the real agent provocateur of an ethnic agenda".
Berating Obi further, Keyamo said with the 2023 campaigns inching close by the day, it had suddenly dawned on the LP candidate that Nigerians were beginning to burst his bubbles, as his messages are bereft of ideas, depth and clear-cut solutions to the country's challenges.
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Telling Obi to quit the presidential race if he has nothing more to tell Nigerians, Keyamo said, "His messages are only full of false data and highfalutin jargons in what is clearly a disingenuous ruse to distract 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 have it on good authority that part of the "U.S Strategy" (just like the failed "Dubai Strategy" his former boss and himself adopted in 2019) was to return to the country and spread ethnic hatred amongst the voters and cause chaos, then pose as the victim. They have just kick-started that plot by orchestrating and circulating the said video."
"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 APC caps and T-shirts to attack some Labour Party offices. It is all part of the "U.S Plan". It is the first in a series of incendiary actions planned by this ill-prepared but desperate candidate."
