By Omolade Durojaye
Some speakers on a twitter space hosted by a twitter handle with the name Peter Obi USA have called for open violence and use of guns on the day of a rally.
The handle is operated, according to available information, by Nigerians in America Diaspora support for Peter Obi Presidential Bid in 2023.
In the voice circulating, it could not be ascertained which rally the speakers were referring to.
The Labour Party held its Lagos rally on Saturday. It was marred by violence. Members of the party cried out that opponents carried out attacks on them especially in the Lekki Ajah axis of the state.
NPO Reports contacted the Director General of the campaign, Balogun Akin Oshuntokun, who promised to get back after being sent one of the recorded clips from the space event.
Speaking in Pidgin English, one of the speakers on the space said “Na to set them up first that day, e get as e go be on that day na him them go no say men day. That rally wey they come you and your own security apparatus , as you dey go, you carry your own machine for hand, you carry , you carry your own things, your tools. No allow person come they and as men they regroup make una no fear.”
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As the contributions tended towards encouraging violence, one of the speakers said “Abeg I go advice make we keep our strategy on a code.”
Another participant at the space said, “Machines dey we mo go even spend money for groundnut sef , e full e yapa for everywhere , he dey men dey na just to constitute and add up a security committee today , groundnut dey men dey
“Make we die this matter. Make Oga Stepho carry on. We don know wetin we wan do we don know say ehn. Man just organize just know wat’s up. Make we die am here make we just dey vent normal.”
Reacting, Director General of the Obi Campaign, Balogun Akin Oshuntokun, said the campaign dissociated itself from such open display of violence.
https://twitter.com/NpoReports/status/1625129503168110594He said such appropriation of identities such as the twitter handle, was not new under any campaign season.
“This kind of fraudulent appropriation is common in all campaign seasons. And many of those who identify themselves as support groups or purportedly undertaking errands on our behalf are completely unknown to us. We disown this particular hack job in its entirety and has nothing to do with us.
“This kind of fraudulent and perverse identity theft to misrepresent and misinform is common in election seasons. Seems as if this has been taken a notch higher in contemporary Nigeria. I disown this malicious hoax in all its ramifications and urge the Nigerian public to disregard the criminal impersonation,” Oshuntokun said
This was coming on the day the Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmud Yakubu, expressed concerns on attacks on political opponents as the country inched towards the general elections.