Obi alerts on opponents cloning his voice to rubbish his name
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi has raised the alarm over attempts by political opponents to discredit him at home and abroad by cloning his voice to make phone calls to others and make toxic statements.
Obi and two other contestants are challenging in court the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the presidential election on February 25.
He insists he won the vote but it was rigged for Tinubu, and has vowed to prove his case in court to reclaim his “stolen” mandate.
Obi disclosed on Twitter how he is being impersonated by unidentified persons working as hatchet men for political opponents out to discredit him.
“The latest incident happened in Abuja yesterday, May 17, at the Court of Appeal premises of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal venue, where my attention was drawn to what was going on outside the courtroom,” he wrote
“A report came to me while I was seated in court that one Prince Mustapha Audu, son of the late Governor of Kogi State, held the OBIdient’s Chief Spokesman, Dr Yunusa Tanko, and some others spellbound – castigating and talking down on me, describing me as an ethnic and religious bigot.
“He claimed that I called him while I was in front of his office on Tuesday morning around 11 am, but suddenly cut off the phone after I spoke Igbo and he, Audu, was unable to respond.
“According to him, Obi may have only helped to empower some businessmen strictly because they were Igbo and he wondered why Obi should aspire to lead the country if he cannot accommodate other ethnic groups.
“It was one of my aides who quickly alerted me to what was going on and I pleaded with him to go outside and tell the OBIdients who were with the man to kindly delay him until I came out of the courtroom.”
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Meeting face to face with accuser
“After the court proceedings, I met with Audu and he repeated the same story, adding that he was angry at me for cutting off the phone on him because he could not speak Igbo.
“He insisted that I was in front of his office in Abuja when I called,” Obi recounted, as reported by The PUNCH.
“I then introduced myself again to him and told him, ‘My brother, I did not call you, and I couldn’t have been in front of your office on Tuesday because I was not in Abuja, and not even in the country.
‘“At about the time you alleged that I called you, I was arriving in Nice in France for a meeting. By the evening of the same day, I flew to London for another meeting and in fact, had to breeze in to felicitate with my dear elder brother, Dele Momodu, on his 63rd birthday.
‘“I only flew into the country this morning for this court session. The young man, looking embarrassed and surprised at the same time, added that the voice of the caller and everything sounded like mine.’ We exchanged pleasantries and took pictures.”
Obi tagged the incident as “one of the many desperate efforts to run me down and tag me as what I am not, with the intention to gain some perceived political mileage against me.”
Obi urged the public to be cautious and not easily deceived by those impersonating him for ulterior motives.