2023 Polls: Nigeria warns Peter Obi, Datti Baba-Ahmed ‘inviting insurrection is treason’

*Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister for Information and Culture, at a forum in Washington, D.C., United States, cautions the duo ‘this is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing’

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

Against the backdrop of the wide-ranging reactions to the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, the Federal Government of Nigeria has cautioned Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, and Datti Baba-Ahmed, his running mate, against causing an uprising in the West African country.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister for Information and Culture, stated this in Washington D.C., United States (US), during his official engagements with some international media organisations on this year’s General Elections.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister for Information and Culture

It was learnt Mohammed noted that Obi and Baba-Ahmed had claimed that Nigeria’s democracy would come to an end, if Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President-elect, is inaugurated come Monday, May 29, 2023.

The Minister warned: “Obi and his Vice, Baba-Ahmed, cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn-in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.”

Mohammed stated that  Obi is trying to incite an uprising in the country.

He said the Labour Party Presidential candidate is not the democrat that he has claimed to be, agency report stated.

He also declared: “This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.

“Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be.

“A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election.”

It is recalled the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Asiwaju Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, won the presidential election held Saturday, February 25, 2023.

He polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat Presidential election contenders, Alhaji  Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 6,984,520 votes, and Obi of Labour Party had 6,101,533 votes.

Following the INEC’s announcement of the results and declaration of the winner, Atiku and Obi have since rejected the election results and announced their intent to challenge the conduct of the election in court.

The contenders cited alleged rigging and manipulation by the electoral umpire to favour Tinubu and the ruling APC.

The minister noted that, despite challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi or Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidates of PDP.

Tinubu meets constitutional requirements to be declared president, says Minister

Alhaji Mohammed further clarified that both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared President.

The Minister said only Tinubu met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes, and having one-quarter of all the votes cast in all 29 states of the Federation.

He stated: “You cannot win an election in a poll where you came to a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements.

“Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud, has not disowned his victory in Lagos.”

The Minister noted that Obi was there to refute the unfavourable accounts of the election being spread by sceptics and the opposition.

The opposition party, having lost the election, was alleging fraud and calling for its cancellation and the constitution of the interim government in Nigeria, said Mohammed.

According to him, the 2023 election is the fairest and most credible, following the introduction of the Bimodal Voters Verification System (BVAS).

Mohammed added: “We have come here (US) to balance that skewed narratives, and to tell the world unambiguously, that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria are the fairest, most transparent and authentic in the history of Nigeria.”

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