THE Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, says the “failure” of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi to caution his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed over his controversial comments means he is in support of what he said.
Datti had in an interview on March 22 questioned the legitimacy of the pronouncement of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the election February 25 election.
According to him, swearing Tinubu in as Nigeria President will be unconstitutional as the APC candidate “has not met requirements of the law”.
But in an interaction with State House correspondents yesterday, Mohammed said Datti is calling for insurrection through his statement.
“I said Mr. Peter Obi has every right to seek redress in court like Labour Party but nobody has the right to call for insurrection or to threaten to say that if the president-elect is sworn-in, that would be the end of democracy,” the minister said.
“And that was precisely what Obi’s running mate said on live television and I have not heard Obi rein him in or correct him; so, if your running mate says something; of course, he was saying on behalf of the party and on behalf of the candidate.
“That is why I said that was treason; for anybody to say that if a duly elected president in Nigeria is sworn in, that will be the end of democracy is treason. For anybody to say if you swear in a duly elected president, you are swearing the military, it is treason.
“So, I don’t see anything controversy in that.”
