In a telephone conversation leaked to Peoples Gazette, Peter Obi begged Bishop David Oyedepo to help canvass Christian votes on the eve of Nigeria’s presidential election.
Religion became central to the campaign after Bola Tinubu tapped a fellow Muslim running mate in a nation widely deemed evenly split between Christians and Muslims.
FIJ subjected the audio to a deepfake test using Deepware, an AI tool used to detect alterations in audios and videos. Deepware’s deepfake detection technology “was designed to detect deepfake videos or, simply, any fake content in the areas of visual and audio communication“.
According to Deepware, the audio was not AI generated, and it underwent no technological alterations.
The Cable, a Nigerian newspaper, had used the same tool to detect that a supposed audio conversation of Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President of Nigeria, Aminu Tambuwal, the Governor of Sokoto State, and Ifeanyi Okowa, the Governor of Delta State, plotting to rig the 2023 presidential election was a deepfake.
Mr Obi, the Labour Party’s standard-bearer, saw the February 25, 2023, exercise as a battle to assert the place of Christians in the country, bootstrapping his candidacy out of a polarised cycle set off by Bola Tinubu’s religiously-tinged Muslim-Muslim nomination. The election was largely a three-way race between Messrs Obi, Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president who ran again on the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party line.
Mr Obi, 61, called Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church (Winners’ Chapel) on the eve of the election and implored him to pass messages to Christians across the South-West — and also to those in central states like 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,” Mr Obi said in the audio obtained by The Gazette. “This is a religious war.”
“I believe that, I believe that, I believe that,” Mr Oyedepo said.
“Like I keep saying: if this works, you people will never regret the support,” Mr Obi said with candour, adding that Christians in places like Kogi, Kwara and Niger have been difficult to penetrate.
“We look forward to God’s intervention,” Mr Oyedepo said, promising to circulate more messages to Christians on Mr Obi’s behalf.
For two days, Mr Obi did not attend to The Gazette’s calls and messages to his two available telephone lines. His media aides and allies, including Akin Osuntokun, Valentine Obienyem and Mike Ifedi, all declined comments when The Gazette sent an enquiry to them with the full audio.
Mr Ifedi said he was trying to discuss the audio with Mr Obi for a measured response, but his message did not come in before a final decision was taken to run this story.
In the viral audio, both men can be heard discussing ahead of the February 25 presidential election about the Christian voting community in Nigeria’s southwest and north-central regions, and how to get them to support Obi.
Obi can be heard saying, “It is a religious war,” to which Oyedepo replies, “I believe that.”
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