The Labour Party (LP) has given its candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, 48 hours to make all his academic records public and clarify all the discrepancies in his certificates or be suspended by the party.
The ultimatum was given in a statement issued on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi.
Arabambi condemned the spokesman for the Peter Obi/Datti Ahmed presidential campaign council, Tanko Yinusa for claiming that the allegation that Obi was impersonating his late elder brother was a farce.
Arabambi said, “The Labour Party at this juncture wishes to demand an answer to the following: what is the name of this so-called elder brother of Peter Obi who read computer science?
“What year did this Peter Obi’s elder brother die? What was the name on the secondary school certificate and University of Nigeria Nsukka certificate? What is the nature of the business of his brother? Where is Peter Obi’s birth certificate? What was the name on Peter Obi’s birth certificate?
“Why is it that the name on his birth certificate is different from the name on his school certificate? Why is the name on his school certificate different from the one written on his UNN certificate? Which university mobilized Peter Obi for his mandatory one-year NYSC? Why is the name on his NYSC certificate different from the name on his University of Nigeria Nsukka certificate?”
According to him, “One would have expected Peter Obi to offer a satisfactory response to Nigerians as to the reasons for explicit discrepancies in his academic records to reveal his true identity and save our party from further avoidable national embarrassment”.
He added, “But rather than toe this line of challenge, his attack dog descended to the arena of political somersault, leaving facts to promote audio fiction thus confirming our position that Peter Obi is using the name and certificate of his dead elder brother.”
Arabambi stated that it must first be made clear to the public that there was no evidence provided by Obi against the allegations of forgery, impersonation and inconsistencies contained in his school certificate, University of Nigeria Nsukka certificate and NYSC certificate.
“The Labour Party furthermore demanded to know why Mr Obi only deemed it fit and necessary to only submit his WAEC certificate wherein he failed to obtain the least requirement of credit passes in both mathematics and English which are necessary requirements to gain admission into any University in Nigeria.
“The Labour Party is also asking Mr Peter Obi to explain the circumstances that made him to have different names in different schools, public documents in such a shrouded and fraudulent manner, rather than employing blackmail and unnecessary sentiments.
“We challenge Mr Peter Obi to provide answers to all the questions raised above to clear the air of uncertainty about his person.
“We further admonish him to proceed to a court of law against the Labour Party or better still to ask his team of lawyers to petition the Inspector General of Police for defamation which will allow us an ample opportunity to bring in the authorities of his secondary school, University of Nigeria Nsukka and the National Youth Service Corp out for clarification on the inconsistencies.
“Failure to do this within the next 48 hours will attract his suspension from the Labour Party,” Arabambi stated.