Festus Keyamo, the spokesperson for the ruling All Progressives Congress Campaign Council, has alleged that the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi was planning to stage-manage a fake assassination attempt on himself.
Keyamo a serving Minister of state for Labour and Employment, made the claim in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday.
He alleged that Obi planned to fake his own assassination attempt with hired supporters dressed in the APC caps and T-shirts to attack some of his party secretariats.
He also accused Obi of circulating a hate-filled video online to denigrate the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Keyamo challenged Obi to reveal the source and name(s) of the culprits behind the nebulous WhatsApp message and claimed that the Labour Party candidate deliberately concocted the message and circulated the offensive video himself as a campaign strategy.
The statement said, “Our attention has been drawn to an offensive, hate-filled video made and circulated by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, in which he accused an amorphous and non-existent “Tinubu’s Group” of spreading a WhatsApp message calling on the Yoruba people not to vote for him. The purported message, according to Mr. Obi, forewarned the Yoruba that a vote for Obi would be a vote for a seaport in South-South and South-East.
“We are also aware that plans are afoot by Mr. Peter Obi to fake an assassination attempt on himself and hire Labour Party boys dressed in the APC caps and T-shirts to attack some Labour Party 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.
“Firstly, we vehemently deny the existence of any of such “Tinubu group” that made and circulated such a message. All groups supporting the APC presidential candidate and his running-mate have clear designations with well-known promoters. In addition, it is only messages released by the APC Presidential Campaign Council that are officially authorised and for which we take responsibility.
“As the takeoff date for campaigns draw closer, Mr. Peter Obi has suddenly realised that Nigerians are beginning to burst his bubbles as his messages are bereft of ideas, depth and clear-cut solutions to our challenges. His messages are only full of false data and highfalutin jargons in what is clearly a disingenuous ruse to distract a scrutiny of his empty records as a Governor of Anambra State and nothing else. Hence, his easy recourse to playing ethnic card and fanning the ember of hate,” Keyamo said.