The Peter Obi Support Network has described as “defeatist” the antics of operatives of opposition presidential campaign organisations and their political parties for always “outrightly distorting and mischievously misquoting the speeches” of the Labour Party presidential aspirant, Peter Obi.

The group said the move was a futile bid to discredit Obi and drag him to the level of their candidates.

These were contained in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday, and signed by the Director, Strategic Communication, Peter Obi Support Network, Onwuasoanya Jones.

The group said the antics of the other presidential campaign organisations are evidence that “they are intimidated by the sure-footed knowledgeability of Peter Obi on statistics and necessary information of world economy, governance structure and secrets of successful, secured and democratic nations of the world”.

“The resort to faking his speeches and attempting to put words in his mouth is a strategy by the struggling opposition to attempt to slow down the energy and passion with which Peter Obi, who is undoubtedly, the most acceptable, most prepared, and most patriotic of the candidates, have approached the contest.

“Apparently intimidated by the sure-footed knowledgeability of Obi on statistics and necessary information of world economy, governance structure and secrets of successful, secured and democratic nations of the world, operatives of opposition presidential campaign organisations and their political parties have shamefully resorted to outright distortion and mischievous misquoting of Peter Obi’s speeches.

“This is in a futile bid to discredit him and try to drag him to the level of their candidates, whose ignorance of facts of good governance, measurable standards of working societies and the key differences between failed and working nations are well advertised.

“As the foremost support group of the Peter Obi Presidential Project, we wish to state unequivocally that our candidate is neither flippant nor does he gamble with figures and facts, rather as a keen researcher and passionate seeker for solutions to Nigeria’s numerous challenges, he makes sure to reels out accurate figures and provides the right information in comparing Nigeria’s dire economic, social and security situation with those of other countries of the world.

“We say without fear of contradiction that Peter Obi has continued to restructure the way we play politics in this part of the world by focusing on issues and presenting credible and workable data from across different developed, developing, and underdeveloped nations across the world to give hope to every patriotic Nigerian that, indeed, this country can work again and that with the right leadership in place, Nigerians can regain their pride of nationhood.

“The resort to faking his speeches and attempting to put words in his mouth is a strategy by the struggling opposition to attempt to slow down the energy and passion with which Peter Obi, who is undoubtedly, the most acceptable, most prepared, and most patriotic of the presidential candidates, have approached the contest. We can assure them that this game is a failed one, as Peter has set off on a journey to salvage our dear country and no force can stop this idea.

“It is also defeatist on the part of these candidates and their campaign organisations that, instead of embarking on their own investigative voyage on how to make Nigeria work, they sit lazily in their cosy hotel rooms and grumble over their incompetence and obvious unpreparedness for the task of reworking our dear nation.

“We challenge these disgruntled “fact checkers” and their sponsors to provide any credible evidence of Peter Obi’s speeches where he gave out any of these wrong figures that they associate with him or keep quiet and learn from Peter Obi on how to run a proper presidential campaign.”