The Living Faith Church (Winners’ Chapel) founder, Bishop David Oyedepo, and Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, spoke on the phone in a leaked, widely circulated recording. The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has confirmed the recording’s veracity.
He disclosed this in a release on Sunday morning via his Twitter page, PCC spokesman Kenneth Okonkwo said that during the call, Obi asked Oyedepo to assist in spreading a message to voters.
In the leaked recording, Obi is heard pleading with Bishop David Oyedepo to communicate with Christians in the South-West as well as those in core states like Kwara, Kogi, and Niger on the night of the election.
Obi said, “Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara.
“This is a religious war.”
“I believe that, I believe that, I believe that,” Mr Oyedepo said in response.
“Like I keep saying: if this works, you people will never regret the support,” Mr Obi said with candour, adding that Christians in places like Kogi, Kwara and Niger have been difficult to penetrate.
“We look forward to God’s intervention,” Mr Oyedepo said, promising to circulate more messages to Christians on Mr Obi’s behalf.
However, Okonkwo, speaking on reactions trailing the audio release, said Obi was not fanning a religious war, but “the other party” was.
The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to the publication of this audio tape of private conversation between Peter Obi and Bishop Oyedepo. It is not surprising that these political criminals are trying to spin the conversation as if Obi was making a religious statement.
“Firstly, the context of the conversation was aptly put by Bishop Oyedepo when he said, ‘All Nigerians have equal stake in this nation, nobody has the right to claim that he is dashing something to someone’.
“H. E. Peter Obi was simply urging the Bishop to help him push this message of equal stakeof all Nigerians in the Nigerian project to his people and the christiandom because the politicians of the other party is carrying on this campaign as if it is a religious war.
“To drive home this point, he informed him that he visited the traditional ruler of Offa, the Olofa of Offa, who is a Muslim, but who advised Obi to get the support of Oyedepo and be assured of his own support. No Politician has ever visited the Olofa of Offa. It is clear to everybody that the APC political party that has a Presidential Candidate, Vice Presidential Candidate, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, National Chairman of the Party all from one religion at a time the CJN is a Muslim is the Party that has declared religious war on Nigerians and we must all rise up together to fight this unconstitutional act of religious intolerance of other religions by APC.
“I went around with Obi on campaign train and never saw him discriminate against any religion. Of course he can’t because his Vice is a Muslim unlike APC. I resigned from APC because of their religious intolerance. Nigerians should disregard any insinuation of religious bigots about this tape.”