Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has warned the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, against inciting violence over the outcome of the February presidential election.
Gatekeepers News reports that Mohammed said this in Washington DC during his official engagements with some international media organisations on the just concluded 2023 polls.
He accused Obi of inciting people to violence while seeking redress in court over the outcome of the election.
In a recent interview, the Vice-Presidential candidate of the LP, Datti Baba-Ahmed, had said Bola Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC), did not meet the constitutional requirements to become Nigeria’s president.
Baba-Ahmed said Tinubu failed to fulfil the requirements stipulated in the section of the 1999 constitution (as amended) for election to the office of the president.
He had asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) not to swear in Tinubu as president.
The LP Vice-Presidential candidate’s comments had elicited widespread criticism with some stakeholders calling on security agencies to take action.
NAN quoted the Information Minister as saying on Monday, “Obi and his vice, Datti 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.
“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 a democrat that he claimed to be.
“A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins election.”
Mohammed said there was no possibility of victory for either Obi or the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in their challenge of the election results.
He said they both failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.
According to him, “The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country.
“Only the president-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the votes cast in 29 states of the federation.
“You cannot win election in a poll where you came 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, while elaborating on his mission to the US said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by the opposition on the election.
Mohammed said, “We have come here to balance that skewed narratives and to tell the world unambiguously that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria is the fairest, most transparent, and authentic in the history of Nigeria.
“The election is the most fair and credible because of the introduction of bimodal voters verification system (BVAS) which I regard as a game changer.”
