2023: Issue-based campaign, I agree with Tinubu ― Obi

Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has thrown his weight behind the call by Sen. Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), for the campaign, whenever it starts, to be based on issues and not personality.

Obi was reacting to the call by Tinubu, through his campaign organization, for the candidates and their supporters to base their electioneering on issues that would, in their words, “advance the growth, progress and stability of Nigeria”.

According to a statement signed and made available to Journalists in Awka, on Thursday, by Obi’s Media Adviser, Mr Valentine Obienyem, said the statement by APC advising candidates to “desist from spreading lies, malice and denigrating other candidates,” exactly mirrored what Obi had propagated over the years.

He said if supporters were mindful of this, some articles published in some newspapers against Obi would not have been published, including those with offensive titles.

On the alleged fake letter from the President of Ghana and the alleged request for a 50 billion naira monthly payment, Obienyem said that while Obi was not bothered about their authenticity, it was wickedness to link them to his supporters, insisting that any publication from Obi’s group was always properly signed and the place it was coming from very clearly spelt out.

Obienyem is also described as the height of mischief, the attempt to link his campaign to IPOB. In his words: “We know that things are not well in Nigeria. We know of the agitations in different parts of the country, our principal has always said what he would do with such organizations to stop their agitation and bring them back to Nigeria as one happy family.

Rather than others say what they will do, they are here creating more problems by trying vainly and wickedly to link their fellow contestants to some of those organisations.”

He expressed happiness that Nigerians knew the truth and that such gimmicks used to deceive them would no longer work.

Concluding, Obienyem said that right from Obi’s position as the Governor, he was not known for the habit of attacking people or building lies against others. Obienyem said Obi’s disposition was contrary to those of some of his opponents, whom, he said, actually originated most of those fake news, published them under false names and turned round to ascribe them to Obi or his supporters.

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