June 12: I was never involved in NADECO struggle – Obi

Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, has denied ever being directly involved either as an individual or with the NADECO activities of the June 12, 1993 annulled presidential election struggle.

Obi said this in a statement which the Head, Obi-Datti Media, Mr Diran Onifade, issued on his behalf on Wednesday night .

According to him, he was informed of a fictitious and scurrilous write-up titled, ‘Peter Obi and NADECO/Democracy Day’ and that there is no iota of truth whatsoever in the narratives contained therein, as he (Obi) was never directly or indirectly involved in the activities of the June 12 struggle.

“While he supported and voted for the late Chief MKO Abiola in 1993, soon after the election he relocated to the United Kingdom with his family where he ran a decent successful business that received encouragement and support from credible finance institutions all over the World because of the integrity and reputation he put in it.

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“As of 1993, Obi was not a politician but he came to admire and vote for Abiola through late former Senate President Dr. Chuba Okadigbo whom he was his fan and admirer. Even while at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Obi was not into politics as he was more associated as a student entrepreneur,” Onifade said.

He also said that before becoming (Anambra) Governor Obi never worked or held any government position. He never worked in Nigeria Ports Authority and that the closest he came to late Gen. Sani Abacha’s government was when his petition on port inefficiency and congestion made his colleagues in businesses draft him into the special committee on port reform that lasted for just three months.

He said, “Since leaving office nearly 10 years ago, Obi continues to say that Anambra state has not bought him a bottle of water because he is not into the after-office largesse that most of his colleagues covet for themselves. This is because he refused to sign into law anything aimed at benefitting personally.

“This is the man some hirelings are making fruitless efforts to dent his image by fabricating lies against him including saying that he was against June 12 when he was not even resident in Nigeria during the June 12 imbroglio but leaving in the United Kingdom and could not have been involved as the faceless writer dubiously wanted the gullible public to believe.

“Such brazen sunken story ordinarily should not deserve our response but for the credulous public that May not be privy to these facts. And, because of the level of distortions of facts in the write-up, the mischievous story has no byline.”