2027: Controversy trails Obi’s certificate as ex-LP spokesman alleges discrepancies

2027: Controversy trails Obi’s certificate as ex-LP spokesman alleges discrepancies

A fresh controversy over the identity details contained in Peter Obi’s official records has opened another front in the debate over the former Anambra State governor’s bid for the Nigerian presidency in 2027.

Abayomi Arabambi, a chieftain of the Labour Party and former national publicity secretary of the party, has called on Obi to withdraw from the presidential race, arguing that discrepancies in the names appearing on documents attributed to him require satisfactory explanation before he seeks another mandate from Nigerian voters.

Obi, who was the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, is now expected to contest the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress as established by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

However, Arabambi said the NDC leadership, particularly former Bayelsa State governor and the party’s national leader, Seriake Dickson, should not issue Obi a presidential nomination form until the questions surrounding his official records were resolved.

“My appeal first will go to the leader of the NDC, Seriake Dickson, not to foster what I will call a disaster in Nigeria by presenting Mr Peter Obi as the presidential candidate by giving him that form rather than giving him a JAMB form to fill,” Arabambi said during an interview on Arise TV.

At the centre of his complaint is what Arabambi described as multiple variations of Obi’s name across documents submitted to electoral and educational authorities.

He alleged that in 2022, Obi personally completed INEC Form EC9 and identified himself as “Peter Onwubuasi Gregory.”

Arabambi further claimed that other documents attached to the form contained variations including “Obi Gregory Onwubuasi” and “Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi.”

According to him, the differences are significant because the same individual is expected to maintain a consistent identity across official records unless there is formal documentation establishing a change of name.

“When you decided to write your name as Peter Gregory Onwubuasi and the first certificate you presented, not even the primary school certificate now has Obi Gregory Onwubuasi, that is an anomaly,” he alleged.

Arabambi also questioned the name appearing on documents relating to Obi’s education at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and subsequently on his National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate.

He claimed that Obi’s university certificate bears the name “Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi,” while another variation appears on his NYSC certificate.

The former LP spokesman argued that the issue goes beyond a mere difference in the order of names, because, according to him, Obi declared on the INEC form that he had no other formal name.

“And they asked him on page 2 in Form EC9, do you have any other formal name, and he said, ‘no’.

“That means that everything attached contradicted all the names he used his hand to write,” Arabambi said.

Although the claims have yet to be established as fact by any competent authority, they amount to allegations by a political opponent and former party insider, and the institutions whose records Arabambi referenced have not, in the material provided, publicly authenticated or rejected his interpretation of the documents.

Arabambi said he had written to the National Youth Service Corps, the West African Examinations Council and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, seeking clarification.

He accused the institutions of delaying their responses and said he intended to pursue the matter through legal channels if the questions remained unanswered.

“I have written to NYSC, but they are dilly-dallying; my lawyer will write to them again as a reminder. We have written to WAEC and to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

“I am not begging them to release it, but once we give them a letter of reminder and they fail, we will go and commit them to prison. This is our country. People must not be hiding information,” he added.

Arabambi’s argument rests largely on the principle that a presidential aspirant should be able to account clearly for the personal and educational records used to establish his eligibility.

Under Nigeria’s electoral system, presidential candidates are required to submit statutory particulars and supporting information to INEC.

Questions concerning educational qualifications, personal particulars or other eligibility requirements can become matters of public and legal scrutiny, particularly when candidates seek the highest political office in the country.

For Arabambi, however, the controversy is not simply about bureaucracy or the arrangement of names on certificates. He considers the absence, as he alleges, of a formal instrument documenting a change of name to be central to the matter.

“If a man cannot come out clean to say this is my name, there is a problem. Let us address this issue. This man is not the owner of this certificate.

“I expected him to have at least an affidavit for a change of name like women do when they get married,” he argued.

He also drew attention to the dates on some of the documents, questioning how certain certificates could have been signed on days he described as public holidays.

In particular, he questioned the circumstances surrounding the signing of Obi’s university certificate and NYSC discharge certificate.

“I don’t know whether the Vice Chancellor or Registrar that signed this was aware that there was no force majeure in Nigeria on Friday and Saturday. What will make them go to work on Saturday to go and sign this certificate?” he asked.

He similarly questioned the date appearing on the NYSC document, which he said was signed on Workers’ Day.

Those questions, however, require verification from the institutions involved.

A date appearing on a certificate does not by itself establish that the document is fraudulent or improperly issued, and whether an institution operated or authorised the signing of a document on a particular date would need to be established from its official records.

Arabambi’s criticism is also rooted in his own history with Obi and the Labour Party.

He said the issues were not entirely new and recalled that he had publicly raised questions about Obi’s certificates during the 2023 election cycle, when he served as the party’s publicity secretary.

“I was the publicity secretary of the party when I first came out to say that the man was parading fake certificates. This was in 2023. Then, I had wasted my vote for him, but I am not going to do so again,” he said.

He maintained that some of the documents he now questions were available within the Labour Party before the 2023 election and that he had personally raised the issue with party officials.

According to him, he and then LP national chairman Julius Abure confronted Obi about the matter at a hotel, but the explanations they sought did not resolve his concerns.

“I brought his forms to Abuja. Some of these things were not known to us. When we asked him in our hotel room, Abure and I, he said he would submit them to us when we get to Abuja. We only knew when these issues came out in the public,” he added.

The renewed dispute comes as Obi’s political future becomes an increasingly important component of opposition calculations ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

His 2023 candidacy on the Labour Party platform transformed him into a major force in Nigerian opposition politics, particularly among younger voters and urban professionals.

Although he did not win the election, his performance significantly altered the traditional two-party structure of presidential competition by making the Labour Party a serious contender in several parts of the country.

Arabambi believes Obi should answer the questions publicly rather than dismiss them as political attacks.

“Did we know that he had filled these things there in 2026? That is an insult to our sensibilities. How can one individual be bearing four different names?” he asked.

He also challenged Obi’s former university colleagues and officials connected with the issuance of the documents to come forward and clarify the circumstances surrounding the records.

“His colleagues that sat with him and they finished on a public holiday; they should come out,” he said.

Credit- Punch