African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has accused the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, and the Labour Party (LP) former vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, of being military apologists.
NEWSNGR reports that Sowore made the allegations during an interview on ARISE Television on Tuesday.
Sowore alleged that Peter Obi and Datti’s ties to former military leaders raise questions about their political positions.
He said, “These guys are military apologists. It is not only Datti Baba-Ahmed that is a military apologist; Peter Obi himself is a military apologist. They are all Abacha’s boys; Datti was a Babangida person, Peter Obi is an Abacha boy, and they all worked with the military. Whenever they want to seek approval or validation, they always go back to the homes of the military generals.”
Sowore also alleged that Datti, Peter Obi and President Bola Tinubu share longstanding connections to Nigeria’s political and military establishment, pointing to their interactions during the peace agreement signing event in 2023 as evidence of relationships that extend beyond public political differences.
He stated, “I met Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed for the first time during a peace agreement signing event in 2023. I was sitting next to him while he was occupying the seat meant for Peter Obi. Next to me was Tinubu, who is now president.
“When Tinubu walked in, and Datti was calling Tinubu ‘Uncle.’ He was almost kneeling down for Tinubu. I was looking at his conduct right there, comparing it to what was going on on the internet regarding how they were discussing Tinubu as a terrible candidate. I said to myself, these guys are presenting a double-faced, Janus-faced persona to the public. I am not saying that Tinubu is not his uncle or that he shouldn’t respect him, but that level of fawning around him showed me that these guys don’t have any real disagreement with Tinubu.
“Eventually, Peter Obi also arrived. When the event was over, I stood up and left. I didn’t greet Tinubu; I just left. I looked back five seconds later, and all of the guys we held meetings with who were busy in public were lined up Peter Obi, Dan Nwanyanwu, all of them were lining up to greet him.
“I thought, am I seeing a different set of candidates who, when we go to meetings as presidential candidates, speak about how to defeat Tinubu, how they have no respect for him, and discuss all kinds of things about him? Yet here we are, right in front of the world, and this same Tinubu has all of them queuing up just to have a handshake with him. I was the only one who didn’t wait behind.”
