Reno Omokri on Sunday spoke on the circumstances surrounding the recently concluded 2023 elections and the upcoming tribunal set up to address petitions from the opposition parties against the All Progressive Congress.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS, the one-time assistant to former president Goodluck Jonathan, who is a strong supporter of the People’s Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, stated that Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, stood no chance at emerging winner of the recently concluded election no matter the odds. He went ahead to point out flaws in the latter candidate’s campaign movement.
“Peter Obi did well and better than we expected but there’s no way he would have won because he did not have the spread. If you look at the Muslim states, he did not win one Muslim state. If you look at the southern part of Nigeria, the most Muslim state is Osun state and he didn’t even make a good showing there.
“The next most Muslim state in terms of demographic is Oyo state. He didn’t make a show there. There was a rejection from them because they had felt he brought religion into the election. We saw him going to churches saying, ‘Church take back your country.’ He rallied his base, the Christian south and north but it actually made him repugnant to the Muslims.” Reno added.
The writer and publisher however commended the ‘Obidient’ movement started by the supporters of the Labour Party candidate. In a previous tweet, rather than referring to them in a derogatory term coined by opposition supporters – ‘Obidiots’ – he referred to them as ‘obigeniuses’ adding that the phenomenal movement should be studied by prestigious higher institutions around the world.
“If you are candid, you have to give them credit. Now for what the Obidients had done, in less than a year, though he joined the Labour Party in May last year, this has been able to galvanize a movement that was able to give them 6 million votes. If they had joined with the PDP, we would have been able to win the election despite the rigging, hands down.”
However, in the same interview, the writer and publisher urged the PDP to focus on the alleged drug ties of President-elect Ahmed Bola Tinubu, which is a core argument in its petition to grt Tinubu disqualified from being President.
The argument is based on the constitutional provision that any person who has links with drug-related cases cannot contest for president.
Many have described the party’s push of the case as malicious and “dead on arrival.” This is because the case was dismissed on forfeiture which he stated by national and international law, is a form of penance.
“What we should focus on at the tribunal is that Bola Tinubu has links with the drug cartel. According to our laws and the laws of the United states, when you forfeit money, it’s taken as a conviction.
“When you have a forfeiture or a conviction, that means that criminal matter has been settled, however in the laws of Nigeria if you have been convicted for such an offense then you are ineligible to be president of Nigeria. I’m not asking NDLEA to open a case that has already been settled.”
Glamour Adah.
Follow us on:
