On the eve of the February 25 presidential election, Peter Obi, presidential candidate for Labour Party (LP), allegedly phoned Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, begging him to help canvass Christian votes, a publication by Peoples Gazette, revealed.
Although religious dichotomy has been a major device used by desperate politicians in Nigeria during electioneering processes, it became serious when All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu [a Muslim] picked his fellow Muslim, Kashim Shettima, as running mate. This did not sit well with many players in Nigerian politics.
CLAIM
In the four minutes, seventeen seconds leaked audio, Obi was heard pleading with the cleric to help secure Christian votes in south-west and north-central Nigeria.
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Below is their conversation as exclusively reported by Peoples Gazette.
“Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara,” Mr Obi said in the audio obtained by The Gazette. “This is a religious war,” he added.
“I believe that, I believe that, I believe that,” Mr Oyedepo replied in a measured and conscious manner that was not incriminating.
“Like I keep saying: if this works, you people will never regret the support,” Mr Obi said with candour and excitement adding that Christians in places like Kogi, Kwara and Niger had been difficult to penetrate.
“We look forward to God’s intervention,” Mr Oyedepo said, promising to circulate more messages to Christians on Mr Obi’s behalf.
Before the medium went to the press, the trio of Akin Osuntokun, Valentine Obienyem and Mike Ifedi who are media aides to Obi declined to comment when Peoples Gazette contacted them.
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Similarly, Oyedepo asked the medium to send the audio to him via WhatsApp, but he refused to respond a day after the medium sent the audio.
Earlier today, a spokesperson of Obi-Datti Campaign team, Diran Onifade dismissed the audio recording as a desperate attempt by APC to hold and retain power. Also, Oyedepo told a congregation in his church that he had never campaigned for any politician or spoken on their behalf to anybody during any election in Nigeria.
But are they saying the truth?
VERIFICATION
When subjected to checks, the audio did not suggest that the voices within were doctored or AI-generated.
WikkiTimes used Deepware scanner, an AI tool used to detect alterations in audio and videos, to detect the originality of the audio, but the result shows the audio was not doctored.
The conversation between the duo confirmed the originality of the audio, an analysis of t the audio by PRNigeria revealed.
During their conversation, Oyedeji at a point asked Obi whether he was in Abuja or Lagos, but the latter answered he was in Onitsha.
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Peoples Gazette reported that the leaked conversation took place on the eve of presidential election and one of Obi’s tweets confirmed this.
VERDICT
The exclusive report by Peoples Gazette, revealing the conversation between Obi and Oyedepo where the former declared the 2023 presidential election as a “religious war” is true as findings showed that the voices were not manipulated.
Amazing! I realized this man planned to bring this country into calamity assuming that he wins the presidential election. All thanks to the All-powerful. We the Muslims have learnt from our mistakes.