VALENTINE Obienyem, a media aide to the Labour Party candidate in the February 25 presidential election, Peter Obi, has identified the suspected mastermind of his principal’s leaked conversation with David Oyedepo, founder of Winners Chapel.
A Nigerian media platform, Peoples Gazette, had published an exclusive report and audio conversation alleging that Obi solicited the support of Oyedepo to get votes from Christians in the South-West ahead of the February 25 presidential election.
The leaked audio has stirred heated debate among Nigerians on social media.
The ICIR had reported how the spokespersons of Obi’s team had been expressing conflicting positions regarding the issue.
Reacting to the report today in a Facebook post, Obienyem said the video was released by someone he identified as an “Nnewi prodigal brother.”
He said, “I heard they set up a Committee made up of some communications experts, headed by our prodigal brother from Nnewi. They are reviewing all calls Obi made in the last three years, and especially now to see if he mentioned Interim Government or anything that will make them prosecute him for treason when and if they take over.
“Till now, they are yet to see any. The badly doctored conservation with Bishop Oyedepo released by our Nnewi prodigal brother is the much they have discovered so far. They edited out the Muslim-Muslim ticket that led to the discussion, where Obi said that in a society like ours, religious balancing was a necessary consideration and that their recklessness had made Christians to assume it was a religious war.”
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.