The spokesman of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo, has confirmed the conversation between the party’s candidate, Peter Obi, and the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide [Winners’ Chapel], Bishop David Oyedepo, in a leaked audio tape.
In the audio conversation which was reportedly held on the eve of the presidential election, the former Anambra State governor can be heard imploring Oyedepo to help pass messages to Christians across the South-West as well as those in the North Central states of Kwara, Kogi, and Niger.
“Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara,” Obi said in the audio obtained by The Gazette.
You’d recall that the Labour Party standard-bearer had been caught in a video clip before the election in which he asked Christian leaders to take back their country.
He also repeated the same sentiment in the leaked conversation when he told the man of God that “This is a religious war,” to which Oyedepo replied, “I believe that, I believe that, I believe that.”
“Like I keep saying: if this works, you people will never regret the support,” Obi pressed on while sobering about the difficulty to penetrate Christians in places like Kogi, Kwara and Niger states.
But, Oyedepo promised to circulate more messages to Christians on Obi’s behalf and said “We look forward to God’s intervention.”
The audio tape has generated several reactions on social media, especially from supporters of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) who accused the Labour Party candidate of deploying dangerous religious rhetorics capable to further polarise the nation.
Reacting to the development, Okonkwo, who confirmed that the leaked audio was a conversation between his principal and Oyedepo, blamed opposition parties of trying to spin the content of the tape.
In a series of tweets on his Twitter page on Sunday, April 2, 2023, the Nollywood actor argued that Obi was simply urging the Bishop to help him push his messages to his people.
His tweets read: “In a telephone conversation leaked to Peoples Gazette, Peter Obi begged Bishop David Oyedepo to help canvass Christian votes on the eve of Nigeria’s presidential election. Religion became central to the campaign after Bola Tinubu tapped a fellow Muslim running mate in a nation making a religious statement.
“Firstly, the context of the conversation was aptly put by Bishop Oyedepo when he said “All Nigerians have equal stake in this nation, nobody has the right to claim that he is dashing something to someone”.
“HE @PeterObi e was simply urging the Bishop to help him push this message of equal stake of all Nigerians in the Nigerian project to his people and the christiandom because the politicians of the other party is carrying on this campaign as if it is a religious war.
“To drive home this point, he informed him that he visited the traditional ruler of Offa, the Olofa of Offa, who is a Muslim, but who advised Obi to get the support of Oyedepo and be assured of his own support. No Politician has ever visited the Olofa of Offa.
“It is clear to everybody that the APC political party that has a Presidential Candidate, Vice Presidential Candidate, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, National Chairman of the Party all from one religion at a time the CJN is a Muslim is the Party that has declared religious war on Nigerians and we must all rise up together to fight this unconstitutional act of religious intolerance of other religions by APC.
“I went around with Obi on campaign train and never saw him discriminate against any religion. Of course he can’t because his Vice is a Muslim unlike APC. I resigned from APC because of their religious intolerance. Nigerians should disregard any insinuation of religious bigots about this tape.”