Leaked Audio: Peter Obi Admits Phoning Oyedepo On Election Eve

The candidate of the Labour Party in the just concluded presidential elections, Peter Obi, has confirmed the veracity of a leaked audio call between him and the presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church, David Oyedepo.

Obi, in an interview with Arise TV on Monday, said appealing to Oyedepo was better than asking his followers to snatch and steal ballot boxes during the election.

He, however, denied calling the elections a religious war.

“Let’s assume I even begged the Bishop to tell his congregation to vote for me so as to save Nigeria. Is it not better than telling my followers to snatch it, steal it, and run away with it?” he queried.

Continuing he said, “Call it whatever you want to call it. Whatever anyone wants to make of it. I am not a religious bigot. Do you think I can just pick a phone and say ‘religious war’? No, I was even begging the bishop to help me ask his people to vote, which was what I was doing for six months – begging.

“I wasn’t saying ‘catch him’, ‘kill him’, ‘force it’. I was even begging. That shows that I continued to look for votes by begging. There were so many things we tried to do but they were not okay,” he added.

Recall that a leaked conversation between Obi and Oyedepo had surfaced weeks after the polls, with the LP candidate soliciting Oyedepo’s support ahead of the polls.

At that time, both Obi and Oyedepo denied the claims.

Obi tweeted, “Let me reiterate that the audio call being circulated is fake, and at no time throughout the campaign and now did I ever say, think, or even imply that the 2023 election is, or was a religious war.”

On his part, Oyedepo, while not directly making reference to the leaked phone conversation, said he never spoke to any group of people on behalf of any politician.