Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has explained why he accused Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi of treason on Wednesday.
According to Mohammed, Obi committed treason because he did not rebuke his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, for saying that if President-elect Bola Tinubu is sworn in on May 29, the country’s democracy will be over.
According to the minister, Obi’s failure to correct his running mate means that Baba-Ahmed said the mind of Obi.
Mohammed stated this to state house correspondents following the FEC meeting on Wednesday.
“I went to the US to balance the skewed report about the just-concluded elections.
And everywhere I went, I said it very unambiguously that the last general elections in Nigeria are the most transparent, the freest and authentic.
And that’s despite the efforts of the opposition to delegitimise or discredit the elections. And I forwarded my position there as to why these elections were the best.
One, that deployment of technology, especially BIVAS, made it pretty difficult for anybody to do the usual things before which were overvoting, stuffing ballots and the like, because once it takes your biometrics you can’t go twice.
Secondly, I said because the President also showed that he promised that he will provide a level-playing ground, which he did.
In the first instance, Mr President did not confer any advantage on his ruling party.
And that is why as far he was concerned, he would rather lose the election than win at all costs and the results showed it.
The President lost the presidential election in his state in Katsina. It has never happened in Nigeria, for a sitting President to lose the election in his own state.
And I went further to say that the President also prevented anybody from misusing security to rig elections. Of course, the last election is largely the least violent in the history of Nigeria.
What I said about Mr Peter Obi is very clear. I said, Mr Peter 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.
That was precisely what the running mate of Mr Peter Obi said on television. And I have not heard Peter Obi reign him in or correct him.
So if your running mate says something, of course, he was saying it on behalf of the party and the candidate.
That’s why I said that it was treason for anybody to say that if a duly elected President in Nigeria is sworn in, that would be the end of democracy. So I don’t see anything controversial in that.”
