For some reasons, the presidential ambition of former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has attracted more attention both from supporters and critics alike.
Adding to the number of critics, is Asari Dokubo, who in a recent video rant, called the Labour Party candidate a criminal who should have been in jail, instead seeking the highest political seat in the country.
Dokubo has previously described Peter Obi as a glorified “Yahoo Yahoo boy” (fraudster), but now followed up with an accusation that Obi abused his office during his time as governor, by investing Anambra State funds in his family business.
He said, “In a normal country, Peter Obi is supposed to be in jail for investing state money in a family business and failed,” urging Nigerians not to waste their votes on him.
Meanwhile, Peter Obi denied any involvement in corruption during an interview in which he was asked why he invested $30 million of Anambra State funds in a company owned by his family.
He denied this in response to a question by Kadaria Ahmed, host of ‘The Candidates’, a presidential town hall co-production between Daria Media and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), with support from the MacArthur Foundation, held in Abuja recently.
He claimed the company in question belonged to his parents, and that he had no dealings in it after he became a public officer.
“I brought International Breweries into Nigeria and as a Governor of a state, they built a greenfield facility in the state and they came to me and said ‘as our partner, we want you to own 15 percent of this company’, and I said to them ‘No, right now, I am the Governor of a state.
"I know the future of this brewery, and I want the state to own 10 per cent and since I’m no longer involved in the company, they can own five per cent’. I put in $30million of state money there, it’s now worth $100million and it’s still there. No other state in this country has such investment.
“Personally, I have no investment; not even one Naira. Go to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) today, if you will see Peter Obi as owner of one share; it doesn’t exist. Next is a family company started by my own parents and as their child, I ran it at a time, and when I became Governor, I had nothing to do with it till today.
“I also invested $50 million of Anambra State money in the power sector. I invested several billions in banks, including banks where I have shares. I was investing for the future of the state; it doesn’t matter whether I have shares or not. If I had the opportunity to build the future of the state, wouldn’t I have done that?”