Former Anambra State Governor and presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has defended his decision to drag his former campaign spokesman, Kenneth Okonkwo, before the courts, declaring that he is eager for the actor-turned-politician to publicly present every allegation he claims to have against him.
Obi made the remarks during a podcast interview with veteran broadcaster Rufai Oseni, amid an escalating war of words between the two former political allies.
The former Labour Party presidential candidate said the lawsuit became inevitable after Okonkwo suggested that he possessed additional damaging information which he intended to reveal at a later date.
“The issue of taking Kenneth Okonkwo to court wouldn’t have arisen if he had stopped at those allegations. But he claimed he still has more he would expose about me in the future,” Obi said.
“So I am very happy to take him to court so that he can expose me publicly, alongside other Nigerians. If any of them has any criminal allegations against me, they should bring it to court.”
Obi insisted that public office holders and those seeking leadership positions must be willing to submit themselves to public scrutiny, arguing that Nigerians deserve to know the true character of those aspiring to govern them.
“I think as a leader, this is time to avail ourselves for scrutiny by the public so that people can hear all the bad things about us,” he stated.
“Because it is important that our future leaders must be who they say they are in terms of character, integrity, competence, qualifications and everything.”
The former governor maintained that the legal action was not merely a response to allegations already made by Okonkwo but was intended to compel the public testing of every accusation the former spokesman claimed to possess.
“So once he said that, I said wait a minute, we must go further. So people can hear,” Obi added.
Throwing an open challenge to his critics, Obi called on Nigerians with evidence of wrongdoing against him to come forward and make it public.
“Not just Kenneth, everybody should say those things they know that are bad about me or I did that is wrong, because it’s good for the system, it’s good for the society,” he said.
“If you know that when we were in primary school, this man was cheating, or he didn’t go to primary school, didn’t go to secondary school, if you know this man has done something criminal somewhere, this is time to bring it out.”
According to Obi, Nigeria cannot afford another generation of leaders whose backgrounds and records remain clouded by unresolved allegations.
“We must not allow the next set of our leaders to have a record that is doubtful,” he declared.
The former presidential candidate also dismissed reports of a crisis within his political movement, insisting that disagreements are natural in any political organisation and had been resolved.
“Let me assure you that whatever you think is happening in our party is nothing compared to what you see in other parties, and there’s no issue,” he said.
“When you have an organisation, there are at times some disagreements or minor issues which we’ve been talked over, it’s been resolved and everything, and that’s it.”
The comments come amid a deepening fallout between Obi and Okonkwo, who served as one of his most prominent campaign spokespersons during the 2023 presidential election but has since emerged as one of his fiercest critics.
The dispute escalated after Obi’s lawyer, Chief Alex Ejesieme (SAN), instituted a defamation suit against Okonkwo over allegations that Obi and South-East leaders of the NDC demanded N10 million from House of Representatives aspirants seeking party tickets.
Okonkwo had also alleged that Obi personally compiled lists of party candidates from a hotel room and accused him of involvement in questionable financial dealings and practices within the party structure.
Obi’s legal team, however, dismissed the allegations as “false, baseless, malicious, reckless and defamatory,” insisting that they were calculated to tarnish the former governor’s reputation.
The lawyers demanded a retraction, public apology and compensation, warning that freedom of expression does not extend to the publication of false and damaging allegations.
The controversy took a fresh twist after Okonkwo subsequently released a series of WhatsApp messages which he claimed supported his allegations against the former presidential candidate.
