The Director of Media and Public Affairs, All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, on Monday, raised the alarm that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, is planning to fake an assassination attempt and hire some supporters dressed in the APC caps and t-shirts to attack some of his party offices.
This is even as the Minister of State for Labour and Employment accused the former Anambra State governor of allegedly circulating a hate-filled video online to disparage and spread the rumour that the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is withdrawing from the 2023 general elections due to ill health.
Keyamo made the claim in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday.
While challenging Obi to reveal the source and name(s) of the culprits behind the nebulous Whatsapp message, the minister noted that it was obvious the LP candidate deliberately concocted the message and circulated the offensive video himself as a campaign strategy.
The statement read in part, “Our attention has been drawn to an offensive, hate-filled video made and circulated by Obi in which he accused an amorphous and non-existent ‘Tinubu’s Group’ of spreading a Whatsapp message calling on the Yoruba not to vote for him. The purported message, according to Obi, forewarned the Yoruba that a vote for Peter Obi would be a vote for a seaport in the South-South and South-East regions.
“We are also aware that plans are afoot by Obi to fake an assassination attempt on himself and hire LP boys dressed in APC caps and t-shirts to attack some LP offices. It is all part of the ‘US Plan.’ It is the first in a series of incendiary actions planned by this ill-prepared but desperate candidate.”
Reacting to Keyamo’s allegation, Obi’s media aide, Emeka Obasi, described it as fallacious.
Obasi said, “It is a fallacy. You media people should also know when you see something fallacious. Does Peter look like someone who pretends or fakes things? What do we gain by faking an assassination attempt? Are they in any way trying to carry out such an attempt and seeking to blame Obi for it? The public deserves to know and that’s what we should put up in the press.
“Does Keyamo know more than we know and just use this opportunity to cry wolf? What is his plan for uttering this kind of stupid statement? Does he think Obi is part of the old order always desperate for power? Whenever he says ‘Go and verify’, does it look like scheming?”
