A photo of Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi and Finnish-based Biafran separatist Simon Ekpa has been repudiated by the Obi-Datti Media Office.
Head of Media Office Diran Onifade issued a statement Thursday in Abuja claiming the photo circulating online was doctored.
He claims that the picture, along with others like it, were planted by malicious trolls out to destroy his principal’s name.
Pictures are worth a thousand words, we were told, and they never lie because the facts in them are typically obvious.
“But that was before the advent of digital technology, which has since taken the world by storm.”This dominant story has evolved significantly as doubtful minds have been more willing to use it imaginatively, though adversely, to fabricate what does not exist.
Onifade said, “Obi-Datti Media office notes that the scenario is exactly what played out in the photoshopped picture of the Labour Party’s Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi supposedly standing with the Finland-based irritant Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa.” The picture was doctored to bring disrepute to Obi’s name by associating him with the “ugly story” that Ekpa has become in Nigeria.
He went on to explain that Obi had took the photo while posing with an admirer on a Virgin Flight on July 21, 2023. They put an image of Aisha Yusuf behind them to make it look like they weren’t acting completely nasty and repulsive.
“Memory may be short, but Obi was the one who first described the sit-at-home thing as a criminal conduct that the system has refused to directly address.
It may be time to take a critical look at how this crime has been handled, given that its danger is now obvious enough to attract the attention of the nation’s parliament.
In a similar event, Onifade has accused “troll agents” working on behalf of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of spreading a hoax about Peter Obi “providing 20GB Free Data and N5000 Airtime in celebration of his 62nd Birthday.”
According to the Media Office, “This is a SCAM! Be wary, dear subscriber!
How these criminal schemes can be presented as political play is beyond comprehension. Some troublemakers are more interested in trying to link Peter OBI to Ekpa than they are in finding a permanent solution to the cankerworm, which has humiliated the region and the country.
Another attempt to damage the political Eagle, whose focus is on rebuilding Nigeria and alleviating the country’s mounting poverty, has fallen flat.
“Obi-Datti Media office thinks that if this country is serious about tackling its socio-political and economic challenges, the reasonable thing to do is to quietly study the views laboriously expressed by this phenomenal political leader of contemporary Nigeria”
