The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, yesterday accused the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed of inciting people to violence over the outcome of the February 25 poll.

Mohammed, who spoke in Washington DC during respective interactions with some international media organisations, specifically said Obi has committed treason.

The minister was quoted to have said, “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 the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election.”

The minister said it was wrong for Obi in one breath to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and in another breath to incite people to violence.

Defending the February 25 election which has been rejected by five presidential candidates as flawed, Mohammed said despite challenging the election results in court, he speculated that there was “no pathway to victory” for either Obi or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.

“The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country.

“Not only must he has the plurality of vote cast in an election, but he must also have scored one-quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states.

“Only the President-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the vote cast in 29 states of the federation,” Mohammed said.

He recalled that Atiku who came second with 6.9 million votes was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states, while Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one-quarter of the votes cast in 15 states.

“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,” he said.

Speaking on why he flew to the United States to brief the press, the minister said he needed to correct what he called “the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition on the election.”

The minister accused opposition parties of alleging fraud and calling for the cancellation of the elections and the constitution of an interim government following their defeat at the polls.

*Claims malicious, fictitious, ex-Anambra gov replies minister

However, reacting to the accusations by Mohammed, Obi warned the Federal Government to stop their de-marketing process that is presenting Nigeria in a very bad light.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Obi said, “In the past few days, I’ve observed various campaigns of calumny directed at my person, the latest being allegations attributed to Information Minister Lai Mohammed from Washington DC.

“It is most unfortunate that these consistent efforts to portray me quite contrary to what I am and my core values are coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is malicious and fictitious.

“I have never discussed or encouraged anyone to undermine the Nigerian state; I’ve never sponsored or preached any action against the Nigerian state. Those initiating these actions have increasingly used their official positions and agents to make false allegations against me.

“I’m on record as always advocating peace and issue-based campaign and not campaigning based on ethnicity or religion.

“I’m committed to due process and am presently seeking redress in Court. I urge those engaged in this de-marketing process to stop presenting Nigeria in such a bad light. Our future generations deserve a new Nigeria where they can live a secure and decent life like their counterparts in other climes. It is possible.”

*Stop misinforming the international community, LP cautions Mohammed

Meanwhile, the LP has cautioned the Minister of Information and Culture on misinforming the international community on political issues in the country.

National Chairman, LP, Julius Abure, said his attention was drawn to misleading information credited to the minister that the candidate of the LP was inciting the Nigerian people to violence.

“The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who was on a familiarisation tour of misinforming the international community of the true political situation in Nigeria yesterday during his official engagements with some international media organisations in Washington DC admonished Mr. Obi for weeping up sentiments across Nigeria.

“The Minister who engaged respectively with the “Washington Post”, Voice of America, Associated Press, and Foreign Policy Magazine said it was wrong for Obi on one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and on another breadth inciting people to violence.”

Abure said there were no bases for that admonition, adding that Obi has since decided to be peaceful and follow the part of justice.

“This despite all pressures from our supporters to move into the street to protest the outcome of the general election and to reclaim the mandate freely given to our candidate by the people.”

“The presidential candidate of the Labour Party is the only candidate whose campaign was issues based. Despite all provocation, it was the Labour Party and its candidate that was attacked in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and all other states in the federation, but we have continued to promote peace.

“Therefore, for the Minister of Information and Culture to be admonishing our presidential candidate, was done in bad fate. We, therefore, caution the Minister to desist from such utterances. It is our considered opinion that it is even the APC through their spokespersons and all others who have been engaged in provocative utterances in other to cause chaos that should be admonished. The admonition is largely for APC themselves, their spokespersons, and their officials.”