By Ayo Yusuf
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, has denied allegations that he has been parading about with the academic credentials of his late brother who, like him, also attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The Chief Spokesman for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisation, Yunusa Tanko, said yesterday that it was pure mischief to allege that Mr. Obi had been impersonating his late elder brother.
Mr. Tanko also took a swipe at the Lamidi Apapa faction of Labour Party, saying the group was desperately trying to make Mr. Obi look like a bad product before the Nigerian electorate.
The campaign spokesman gave the rebuttal in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday.
TheNewDiplomat reported how the Spokesman of Apapa faction, Abayomi Arabambi, had on Thursday alleged some discrepancies in the academic certificates of the former Anambra governor.
Mr. Arabambi had raised the observation that the names on Mr Obi’s National Youth Service Corps certificate was different from the ones on his degree credentials when he featured in an interview on AIT News.
The development is coming in the wake of the controversy that had trailed President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate.
Both Mr. Obi and his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, had dragged the president at different press conferences over the authenticity of the credentials he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
While Alhaji Atiku accused Tinubu of parading forged academic documents, Mr. Obi challenged the former Lagos governor to reveal his true identity to Nigerians.
However, Mr. Arabambi had noted in the said interview that it was unfair for the LP candidate to drag the president when there were also discrepancies in his academic qualifications.
While disclosing he (Arabambi) was in the panel which screened Mr. Obi before the LP presidential primary, the factional spokesman said the name on the academic certificate Obi claimed to have bagged from the University of Nigeria in Nsukka contradicts the name on that of his National Youth Service Corps.
Reacting to the allegation on Monday, Mr Tanko berated Arabambi who he said was one of the expelled members of the party still parading themselves as members.
While debunking the allegation against Mr. Obi, the campaign spokesman reiterated that his principal couldn’t have been parading his late brother’s UNN certificate since both studied different courses.
He said, “Obi in his capacity as Labour Party standard bearer had innocuously advised the embattled President to rest the certificate-gate around him and save the country further embarrassment by reintroducing himself and putting the records straight.
“A simple patriotic advisory that was informed by belief in anything that is connected to national development, but their hirelings, freebooters and lawless adventurers prefer to insult our candidate with fabrications.
“In one of his pieces of fiction, they claimed that Obi was impersonating his dead senior brother; a farce, slapstick comedy from hell. Obi’s most senior brother is alive.
“One of his senior brothers who died was in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN years ahead of Obi and read Computer Science while Obi read Philosophy.”
Continuing, the campaign spokesman of the Obi-Datti campaign organisation further labelled the Lamidi Apapa faction as ‘political hirelings and buccaneers indulging in menial work of character assassination to ostensibly soil the name of our Presidential candidate.’
Mr. Tanko also stressed that it is on record that both Arabambi and Apapa are no longer with the leadership of LP.
“At the forefront of these malicious hatchet jobbers, is Dr. Abayomi Arambabi, who dubiously continues even to identify himself as a member and Publicity Secretary of Labour Party. He and Chief Lamidi Apapa have been going about merchandising with the name of the party and endlessly castigating our flag bearer who we are proud to say is the most popular and loved Nigerian politician today.
“As they go about using the name of the party, none has said anything positive about Peter Obi as the presidential candidate of the party they claim.
“That speaks volumes. Instead, they have even been more vociferous against Peter Obi than their sponsors, yet they claim they are of the Labour Party.
“Is it not time the media houses blacklist them for wearing the devil’s coat and speaking on the saint’s platform. After all, none of them or their family members voted for Peter Obi,” he stated.
