Kenneth Okonkwo, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has reiterated his bribery allegations against Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate Peter Obi, presenting alleged evidence despite a lawsuit threat.
Okonkwo, who served as Peter Obi’s spokesperson during the 2023 elections, accused Obi and other NDC leaders in the South-East of bribery. He alleged, citing one of the NDC aspirants, that Obi and the party leaders collected N10 million and N20 million from House of Representatives and Senatorial aspirants, respectively.
The payment contradicts the NDC National Directorate’s order that only qualified candidates who won the Primary Elections should pay.
Okonkwo argued that one of the aspirants, Obunike Ohaegbu, provided him with details of the alleged bribery. As such, he shared screenshots of their chats alongside the transaction receipt on X.
The ADC Chieftain furthered that while Ohaegbu has publicly denied mentioning Peter Obi, their chat screenshots say otherwise.
“Obunike Ohaegbu, when I questioned him to prove that Peter Obi was responsible for demanding the N10m from him and other HOR aspirants and N20m from the Senate aspirants, he made it clear that when he confronted the Party on who authorised the payment, the party named Peter Obi and the caucus leaders who were assembled by Peter Obi.” Okonkwo stated.
In addition to the bribery allegations, Okonkwo also accused Obi of compiling a list of his candidates’ names in Abuja. He stressed that this list excluded most of the people that won the primary elections, but mainly Obi’s people.
Meanwhile, Okonkwo’s allegations follow a recent defamation lawsuit threat from Obi’s lawyers.
The letter, shared across social media, threatened to sue Okonkwo if he fails to withdraw the statement and apologize. The conditions also includes the payment of N5 billion in damages and a written order to cease and desist.
Reacting to the lawsuit threat, Okonkwo said;
It has been brought to my notice that there is a letter circulating online from the hypocrite, Peter Obi, and his Lawyers that I should pay him N5b. Hahaha! If Peter Obi is looking for money to campaign, he should privately ask me for assistance, not come from extortion, and I will help him. I did so when I was his Spokesperson paying for my flight tickets and booking for my hotel accommodation to some of our campaigns.
