Lai Mohammed, minister of information, has accused Peter
Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), of failing to correct
Datti Baba-Ahmed, his running mate, over his controversial comments.
On March 22, Datti said Nigeria has no president-elect
despite the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announcing Bola
Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.
The LP vice-presidential candidate said Tinubu would be
leading an unconstitutional government if sworn into office, adding that the
APC candidate “has not met requirements of the law”.
Speaking with state house correspondents on Wednesday, Lai
said nobody has the right to call for insurrection in the country.
“I said Obi has every
right to seek redress in court like Labour Party but nobody has the right to
call for insurrection or to threaten to say that if the president-elect is
sworn-in, that would be the end of democracy,” Lai said.
“And that was precisely what Obi’s running mate said on live
television and I have not heard Obi rein him in or correct him; so, if your
running mate says something; of course, he was saying on behalf of the party and
on behalf of the candidate.
“That is why I said that was treason; for anybody to say
that if a duly elected president in Nigeria is sworn in, that will be the end
of democracy is treason. For anybody to say if you swear in a duly elected
president, you are swearing the military, it is treason.
“So, I don’t see anything controversy in that.”
‘2023 POLLS WERE THE
MOST TRANSPARENT ‘
He said President Muhammadu Buhari did not confer any
advantage on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) during the presidential
election.
The minister said he clarified the issue during a recent
official trip to the US, noting that he told his audience that Buhari prevented
the use of security agencies to rig elections.
He added that the last election was largely the least
violent in the history of Nigeria.
“I went to the US to balance the skewed report about the
just concluded elections; and everywhere I went, I said very unambiguously that
the last general elections in Nigeria are the most transparent,” he said.
“It was the freest and the most authentic Nigeria had ever
held, and that is despite the effort of the opposition to delegitimise the
election.
“And I put forward my position there that the two reasons
the election was the best was one.
“That the introduction of technology especially, the Bimodal
Voter Accreditation System(BVAS), made it pretty difficult for anybody to do
the usual things before like over-voting, stuffing of ballot boxes and the likes
because once it takes your biometrics; you cannot vote twice.’’
“The first instance was that the president did not confer any advantage on his ruling party; and that as far as he was concerned, he would rather lose the election than win at all cost; and the result showed it.”
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