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A pro-Muslim group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has demanded confirmation or denial from the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners' Chapel), Bishop David Oyedepo, regarding the authenticity of a leaked audio conversation between the duo.
The audio leak, which has now gone viral, captured voices similar to that of Obi and Oyedepo as the former can be heard imploring the respected cleric to help pass messages to Christians across the South West as well as those in the North Central states of Kwara, Kogi, and Niger.
“Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara,” Obi said during the conversation allegedly held on the eve of the February 25, presidential election.
In a bid to convince the Bishop, Obi described the election as "a religious war," to which Oyedepo replied, “I believe that I believe that, I believe that."
Meanwhile, conflicting reactions have trailed the authenticity of the leaked audio, especially from the camp of the Labour Party.
The spokesman of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo, seemed to confirm that the conversation in the said audio was indeed between Obi and Oyedepo when he blamed opposition parties for trying to spin the content of the leaked tape.
“Political criminals are trying to spin the conversation as if the LP candidate was making a religious comment” instead of seeing that “Obi was simply urging the Bishop to help him push this message of equal stake of all Nigerians in the Nigerian project to his people and the Christendom because the politicians of the other party are carrying on this campaign as if it is a religious war," Okonkwo said in a series of tweets on Sunday, April 2, 2023.
But, The Head, Media and Communications of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Diran Onifade, outrightly denied the purported audio conversation which he described as a product of the endless forgeries the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has a notoriety for.
While Obi has continued to ignore the controversy, Oyedepo tacitly authenticated the audio during his sermon last Sunday but disagreed with the narrative being spun around it by insisting that he has never campaigned for any political party.
Reacting to the development, the Executive Director of MURIC, Ishaq Akintola, in a statement on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, asked the former Anambra State governor and the Bishop to speak on the authenticity of the tape now being popularly referred to as “Yes Daddy”.
Akintola said it has become necessary for the duo to come clean so as to give them a fair hearing before interrogating the content of the audio.
The statement read: “The leaked audio tape of a conversation between the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi and the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, has gone viral,” the statement reads.
“In the leaked telephone conversation which occurred on the eve of the February 25, 2023, presidential election, Peter Obi was heard saying, ‘Yes Daddy’ to every remark made by the bishop. The LP presidential candidate called the election a ‘religious war’ to which the bishop replied ‘I believe that’. Peter Obi also told the bishop, ‘Like I keep saying if this works, you people will never regret the support.’
“MURIC urges the duo of LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi and the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, to confirm or deny the authenticity of the leaked audio tape within three days.
“#SpeakUpPeterObiOyedepo #AdmitOrDenyIn3Days.”