The Labour Party presidential candidate in the just-concluded general elections, Peter Obi, has jumped to the defence of his supporters, otherwise known as Obidients, regarding recent attacks against the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye.
The respected man of God was at the receiving end of online vitriols over comments attributed to him regarding the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
Adeboye was quoted by some media outlets to have predicted that the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, will have a successful reign as the president on the country.
It’d be recalled that Obi and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart Atiku Abubakar are currently challenging Tinubu’s victory at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) and Adeboye’s alleged comment was deemed as an approval of the process that produced Tinubu, which many Obi supporters didn’t find acceptable.
Though the ceaseless attacks were engineered by some known Obi supporters on social media, the Labour Party candidate has argued that such behaviour is antithetical to what the Obidient movement stands for.
Taking to his Twitter page on Wednesday evening May 10, 2023, Obi claimed that the recent attacks against Adeboye and other eminent Nigerians who have shown a favourable disposition to Tinubu’s victory were calculated efforts by the opposition to create ethnic or religious chasm.
His tweet read: “The use of subterfuge by people masquerading as Obidients to abuse and insult eminent personalities like Most Reverend Pastor Enoch Adeboye or anyone else is most unacceptable. Obidients are by and large, law-abiding citizens.
“While differences of opinion are normal, calculated efforts to create ethnic or religious chasm all in the name of politics should not in any way be tolerated. As a person, I eschew name-calling, insults, and abuses, likewise most of my supporters.
The suggestion that some in the fringes engage in such conduct casually overlooks the fact that the political opposition deploys such methods to gain undue advantage and create confusion and bad blood. – PO.“
