The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has asked Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) and David Oyedepo, founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, to confirm or deny the authenticity of the viral leaked audio allegedly involving the duo.

In the audio clip, a voice similar to that of Obi can be heard asking Oyedepo to speak to the Christians in the south-west and Kwara to vote for him in the presidential poll, describing the election as a “religious war”.

So far, there have been conflicting statements regarding the authenticity of the tape from the LP.

The LP campaign council said the audio was a deep fake and accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of trying to demarket Obi. 

The council said it was a plot to create a credibility problem for its candidate and had no other purpose than mischief.

Valentine Obienyem, Obi’s media aide, also said the leaked audio of his principal’s conversation with Oyedepo was edited out of context.

Kenneth Okonkwo, a spokesperson of the LP campaign, however, said the clip was authentic.

Okonkwo said “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”.

While Obi is yet to address the controversy, Oyedepo said he has never and will not campaign for any political candidate before.

The cleric neither confirmed nor denied that the conversation took place.

“CONFIRM OR DENY IN THREE DAYS”

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Ishaq Akintola, MURIC executive director, asked the duo to speak up on the authenticity of the viral clip now dubbed “Yes Daddy”.

Akintola said the call was made so as to give the duo a fair hearing before interrogating the content of the audio.

“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.”

THE CABLE