#NigeriaDecides2023: Inviting insurrection is treason, FG warns Obi, Datti
The federal government has warned presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, against inciting people to violence over the outcome of the presidential election.
The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, gave the admonition in Washington DC during his official engagements with some international media organisations.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister is in Washington to engage with international media organisations and Think-tanks on the just concluded 2023 polls
At a briefing, the minister said it was wrong for Obi in one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and in other breadth inciting people to violence.
“Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria,” he said.
“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.
“Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be.
“A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election.”
The minister said in challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi or Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the minister, both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.
“The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country. Not only must he has the plurality of vote cast in an election, but he must also have scored one-quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states,” he added.
“Only the President-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the vote cast in 29 states of the federation.”
The minister said Atiku who came second with 6.9 million votes was only able to make one-quarter of votes cast in 21 states.
He said Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one-quarter of votes cast in 15 states.
Elaborating on his mission to the US, the minister said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition on the election.
