Mr Peter Gregory Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) Presidential candidate, has distanced himself from the charge of being an ethnic and religious bigot.
Obi’s reaction was to Dr Chimaroke Nnamani, whom he addressed as an elder brother and mockingly invited to enrol in his leadership school.
“During these political campaigns, you have continuously cast aspersions on my character, despite my always being polite to you as an elder brother and never publicly or privately talking poorly on you.
“I am really surprised that you as my dear elder brother would go out of the way in the exercise of his fundamental rights of freedom of speech and expression as enshrined in our law to go into saying what he knows is not true.
“I find it very shocking that you had to label me as an ethnic and religious bigot and as one who indulges in a campaign of hatred.
“In this instance, I like to state unequivocally that I am the direct opposite of what you said in your statement and what my campaigns have been.
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“I want to believe that my dear elder brother must have mistaken me for someone else because, in this campaign, I have consistently championed issues-based campaigns, and maintained so, even using illustrations and data to buttress my position, to the extent that I have been accused of using data wrongly and media houses had to create fact check desks just to monitor and address issues I raised during campaigns.
Obi went further to say: “I have been on record to have insisted severally throughout the country that I should not be voted for based on any ethnic or religious link, but to be considered based on character, capacity, and compassion. I have always respectfully requested that my track records & integrity be verified.
“I will also like to challenge anybody including, my dear elder brother to show anywhere in my public appearance where I in any way portrayed ethnic, or religious bigotry or where I called names, even when I came to campaign in Enugu State.
“I was also taken aback at your attributing the ‘Lagos is no man’s land’ statement to Igbos because there is no evidence of that which I see as a case of giving a dog a bad name just to hang it.”
The LP presidential candidate said “Maybe my brother would like to know that I got more votes from non-Igbos in Lagos, Abuja, & other parts of Nigeria, and even if Igbos voted for me should it be the reason why they should be chased away from where they are living and making tangible contributions to development?
“Britain will not send Indians packing because they voted for an Indian to become the Prime Minister.
“I also noticed the spirited efforts you put up to tag me a tribal bigot but such would be hard to prove empirically and I would like to advise my dear elder brother not to join in such senseless and unsubstantiated allegations just to dent one’s image.
“I very much know that among the critical characteristics of every good leader are listening, and learning and my brother advised that I should return to school to learn some aspects of leadership I am lacking.”
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In a mocking submission to Nnamani, Obi said: “Why should I go to school to pay huge fees when I can get it free of charge from my dear elder brother who knows it better? I respectfully appeal that I am invited by my Senior brother to teach me accordingly.”
It would be recalled that Nnamani had in a tweet said, “Peter Gregory Obi has set the Igbo political trajectory 24 years back.
“He has become a twin blight & scourge on the land. His devious opium served to Christians within sections of Nigeria and to Igbo domiciled in different sections of Nigeria is wicked and dangerous.”
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