$150m fund: ‘We’re Obidient to the law’ – Obi-Datti camp fires back at Tinubu

Following allegations by the Ahmed Bola Tinubu media group which had claimed that the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Dr Peter Obi, travelled abroad to seek $150 million funding for his political campaign, even as it also sought the latter’s disqualification for flouting the Electoral Act, the Obi-Datti Media Office, Sunday, described the claims as ‘baseless.’

According to the group, the allegations thrown up by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Ahmed Tinubu’s media camp, was ‘desolate and baseless,’ just as it further expressed surprise that ‘all of a sudden, the structure-less and social media candidates are now the headache of the ruling party that they now had to fabricate and imagine things they want the electoral Commission to act on.’

The Tinubu media camp had, Friday, asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify the LP candidate, Peter Obi in the 2023 General Elections for soliciting foreign funds to the tune of $150 million in order to pursue his political campaigns, which is against the tenets of the Electoral Act, as amended.

Obi’s running mate is Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, while Tinubu is paired with Ibrahim Shettima for the 2023 Presidential poll.

A statement issued by the Obi-Datti media office, Sunday, said it has become apparent that Tinubu’s group ‘is now scared of the structure-less Obi-Datti,’ as it further rubbished the allegations which accused the latter’s supporters of being ‘unlawful,’ while also assuring that Obi ‘can never violate any Electoral law of Nigeria.’

“All of a sudden, the structure-less and social media candidates are now the headache of the ruling party that they now had to fabricate and imagine things they want the electoral Commission to act on.

“Obi’s successful trip abroad which is ostensibly to sensitize and carry along Nigerians abroad on his upcoming agenda of rebuilding the country is open and transparent and not a fund raising.

” But we know why its discomforting some people, because they cannot meet Nigerians in Diaspora knowing that they contributed to their leaving the country in the first place.

“We have always said it umpteenth times that their own understanding of structure is the abundance of looted funds in their kitty that they plan to deploy on hungry Nigerian voters during the election to sway their votes.

“They know nobody has the kind of stolen funds they have and are always uncomfortable at anything suggesting to them that their opponents could match them.

”Obi did not go to beg for money but to sell himself and his mission to Nigerians outside the shores who are critical stakeholders in the Nigeria project.

“Since June 2022 that they deployed a lump of their loots to get the ticket of their party, the nation’s currency crashed and still battling for breath. And since then they have been mopping up foreign currencies ahead of the election to buy voters.

“The Media office therefore needs to educate them that Obi and his Running mate are knowledgeable duo who know the law and operates within it and who became what they are financially, politically and socially doing legitimate businesses. They have no bullion van history of questionable wealth and are ready and willing to be scrutinized.

“Just as Obi and Dotti backgrounds and antecedents are verifiable so also is their source of income before and now are unambiguous and auditable.

“Obi and Datti, reached where they are today in this 2023 journey giving no ‘shishi’ to anybody, because they are investing on the suffering Nigerians impoverished by the greedy leaders of the past who diverted public funds to their private and family pockets.

“We understand their predicament, the dearth of contents from their principal, the lack of what to market, using the ample opportunity provided by the campaigns and the resort to searching blindly for reasons to disqualify the people’s only hope for a new and better Nigeria.

“Suddenly, they are beginning to realize that the social media giant, the structure-less and inconsequential candidates, are in the heart of the people who are convinced by their pragmatic messages. In frustration and envy they are now desperately looking for all crooked ways to stop them.

“Finally, we like to advise all those in this school of thought that the old order that kept us down as a nation will still work, to read the writing on the wall and know that their time is up and that Nigerians are ready and determined to take back their county now,” the statement read in full.

Obi has been out of the country on his ‘Eight-Day-Eight-City Tour  and Encounter with Nigeria Diaspora,’ which has seen him in the United States’ cities of Atlanta, Washington DC, as well as in Canada, Germany, meeting ahead of the 2023 General Elections.