Charly Boy Denies Audio Conversation With Obasanjo, Planned Protest Over Alleged Election Rigging

Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa, a veteran Nigerian singer and songwriter, popularly known as Charly Boy, has reacted to some claims about him in the media.

He debunked the audio conversation he purportedly had with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, asking him to rally Nigerians in protest against Saturday's presidential and National Assembly elections over alleged rigging.

There was a report of a voice conversation between Charly Boy and ex-President Obasanjo, in which they alleged that the February 25, 2023 presidential election was rigged.

In the voice call, a voice purported to be that of Obasanjo told Charly Boy and former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke to rally Nigerians in protest against Bola Tinubu’s victory.

Speaking with SaharaReporters on the telephone, the singer-songwriter denied ever making the call, adding that his voice was doctored to achieve a purpose he said he did not know.

"My brother, I don't know about the calls and I challenged those who spread the fake news what they stand to fan the embers of discord. Let me ask, is Nigeria better off today? Are Nigerians living better? Is the election free, fair and credible?" he asked.

SaharaReporters earlier reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of last Saturday's presidential election.

According to INEC official results, 70-year-old Tinubu won in 12 out of Nigeria's 36 states, and polled a total 8,794,726 million votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

Atiku polled 6,984,520 votes, and Obi polled 6,101,533 votes.

It was reported that reactions had continued to trail the election which both local and international observers had described as falling below standard.

The election was largely characterised by voter suppression, thuggery, manipulation of results which led to the electoral umpire breaching its set out guidelines for the election, which stipulated that Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters would be used for accreditation and uploading of results from polling units.

However, that didn't happen in the election as INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said that they had hitches with the system.