The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has clarified his statement that former governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili was a popular football player in the same school he attended, Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha.
Obi was quoted as saying in Port Harcourt, Rivers State during the commissioning of the Nkpolu-Oroworukwo Flyover Bridge, that “Peter Odili was my senior boy at (CKC); we couldn’t have played football in CKC without Odili; any day he is not in the match, we have lost.”
The statement drew some responses as analysts questioned how Obi could have played with the ex-Rivers State governor after Odili left the school before the Labour Party’s presidential candidate was admitted.
But clarifying his statement on Saturday through his verified Twitter handle @PeterObi, the LP flagbearer said, “I couldn’t have said that former Governor Odili was my classmate, I said that he was a great footballer in my school that we all cherished and had a good memory of his football exploits when we entered the school.
“I was in CKC from 1973 to 1978 and Dr Peter Odili left before I entered the school. He was such a fabulous footballer whose image still loomed large even in our time especially when my primary school was very close to CKC.”
Continuing, Obi said he attended the Santa Maria School/Holy Trinity School, which were both owned by the same Catholic Church that owns the CKC, Onitsha, adding that both primary schools were feeder schools to the CKC and a large number of pupils that passed through them ended up in CKC for their secondary education.