Despite certain denials, some politicians have berated Mr. Peter Obi’s conversation with Bishop David in the leaked viral audio video online.
On Saturday, Peoples Gazette had leaked to the public a telephone conversation between Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, and Oyedepo, the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide.
In the audio clip, Mr Obi asked Mr Oyedepo to help spread his message to Christians in the South-west and parts of North-central.
Addressing him as “daddy,” the LP’s standard-bearer told Mr Oyedepo that the just concluded presidential election was a “religious war.”
“Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara,” Mr Obi was heard saying in the leaked audio clip. “This is a religious war.”
“I believe that, I believe that, I believe that,” Mr Oyedepo responded with Mr Obi saying on the other side of the phone that “If this works, you people will never regret the support.”
During the pre-election campaigns, many Nigerians particularly the critics of Mr Obi saw his political movement as that based on “ethnicity and religion,” particularly with his push for votes largely among the Christian communities.
Obi’s media aides authenticate the leaked audio
Before Obi’s media aides authenticated the leaked audio tape, The Cable, a Nigerian newspaper, had used Deepware, and declared that the Obi-Oyedepo audio was not AI-generated, and did not undergo technological alterations.
FIJ was able to establish that no AI was used in generating the voices or modifying the audio, and made efforts that ultimately proved unsuccessful to reach both men for comments.
The online newspaper passed a verdict that the audio is not a deepfake, a term used to describe doctored clips generated with artificial intelligence tools.
Earlier, Valentine Obienyem, the media adviser to Peter Obi, had alleged that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) leaked the audio conversation between the Labour Party (LP), presidential candidate in the just concluded February 25 election, and David Oyedepo, founder of Living Faith Church.
“I heard they set up a Committee made up of some Communications experts, headed by our prodigal brother from Nnewi. They are reviewing all calls Obi made in the last three years, and especially now to see if he mentioned Interim Government or anything that will make them prosecute him for treason when and if they take over,” Mr Obienyem, said on Sunday in a scanty message.
But on Sunday morning, Kenneth Okonkwo, LP’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) spokesperson, confirmed the authenticity of the audio but suggested a different interpretation of the conversation.
He immediately faced threats of being cancelled by the “Obidients” as Mr Obi’s supporters are described. He has been blamed for undermining their efforts to dismiss the leaked file as deep fake.
In his tweets, Mr Okonkwo attempted to defend the “religious war” comment made by his principal in the viral “private conversation”.
“Firstly, the context of the conversation was aptly put by Bishop Oyedepo when he said, ‘All Nigerians have (an) equal stake in this nation, nobody has the right to claim that he is dashing something to someone,” Mr Okonkwo tweeted.
“H. E. Peter Obi was simply urging the Bishop to help him push this message of (an) equal stake of all Nigerians in the Nigerian project to his people and the Christendom because the politicians of the other party is carrying on this campaign as if it is a religious war (sic).”
However, many supporters of Mr Obi saw Mr Okonkwo’s tweets as “anti-Obidient” and unauthorised, while insisting on the deep fake spin.
In an attempt to defend his principal of the audio leak, Mr Obienyem said the audio conversation was “badly doctored.”
He stressed that both men had also discussed the issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket which led to the conversation, adding that Mr Obi had always preached religious balancing before the election.
“Till now, they are yet to see any. The badly doctored conservation with Bishop Oyedepo released by our Nnewi prodigal brother is the much they have discovered so far.
“They edited out the Muslim-Muslim ticket that led to the discussion, where Obi said that in a society like ours, religious balancing was a necessary consideration and that their recklessness had made Christians to assume it was a religious war,” he further wrote.
Politicians berate Obi’s leaked audio tape
The former Anambra State governor has since come under severe criticisms for the development with some Nigerians branding him as a religious bigot.
The African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, said the Labour Party standard bearer wanted to force his way into power through religious politics.
Reacting to the development, Reno Omokri in a series of Tweets via his Twitter handle said: “See who wanted to be our President? A common simp! Yes daddy, yes daddy, yes daddy! Crying over elections, like a teenage girl dumped by her first boyfriend. This is the same that said he would defeat Boko Haram? He will see bandits and start to cry ‘yes daddy’!”
“As from today, if any Obidient insults you, threatens you, or cyber bullies you, simply respond with…
Reacting too, Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation said; “Now that the spokesman of Peter Obi, one Kenneth Okonkwo, has confirmed that the audio recording of the conversation between Bishop Oyedepo and his principal is authentic, it is time for us to call on the security agencies to declare Peter a security risk, a man that is wholly unfit to lead a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural state and a hater of non-Christians.’’
The Minister of State for Labour and spokesperson for Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign, Festus Keyamo, SAN, in his reaction to the audio Monday, said God had exposed Obi for declaring a religious war in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country, declaring his dream to become a president one day is dead.
Labour Party attacks APC
However, Labour Party has accused the ruling APC of doctoring a viral audio online, where its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was heard in a phone call, soliciting help from Bishop David Oyedepo to speak with the Christian community in some parts of the country on the eve of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections.
The party, therefore, described the audio as one that was capable of instigating religious tension in the country, pointing that it was one of APC’s antics to shift public attention away from the party after allegedly grabbing power through the backdoor.
In his statement, the Head Media, Obi-Datti Media Office, Diran Obifade, said APC’s desperation to grab and retain power by foul means has refused to leave the party a month after the controversial presidential election.
He contended that it was worrisome to note that while the Labour Party was toeing the constitutional path to retrieve its mandate, “those who have truncated the wishes of the majority of Nigerians have resorted to mischief and endless subterfuge to continue to hold on to what they know does not belong to them.
“From the show of shame in Port Harcourt to the drama in the Ibom Air aircraft, both of which they contrived, they have now moved to the circulation of a deep fake audio file aimed at promoting religious tension in the country.
“All these are meant to serve no other purpose than egregious mischief aimed at demarketing Peter Obi. If the goal is to create a credibility problem, the ploy has failed woefully. Peter Obi has long been on record as the only presidential candidate who has urged the Nigerians electorate not to vote for him on the basis of religion or tribe.”
The party, therefore, advised Nigerians to remain focused on the task to take back the mandate it said “was freely given to Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed through legitimate means.
“That is more important than to expect those who ran election on forged credentials and even fake Bishops to stop faking. They cannot stop being fraudulent, because that is who they are.”
Oyedepo speaks
Bishop Oyedepo revealed that all political parties that took part in the just-concluded general elections sought his prayers.
During a live Sunday service at Canaan land, Oyedepo said he prayed for all the political parties that visited him during the election.
“There is no party in Nigeria that was running that didn’t come to me for prayers, not one. I can’t answer the prayer, I can only pray for you,” the pastor said.
“Whether you are a member of a church or not, without your faith Papa’s prayer won’t do anything,” he added.
