The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Public Engagement, Fredrick Nwabufo, has attacked the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, over his recent remarks on an ongoing legal dispute involving his principal in a United States district court.
CityNews recalls that Tinubu recently asked the court to reject a motion seeking the release of records relating to investigations allegedly involving him, arguing that privacy provisions under US law protect the documents.
Tinubu, who joined the case as an intervenor, made the argument in a response filed before the court.
The President asked the court to deny Aaron Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment and allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to maintain redactions and withhold records already released.
However, Peter Obi, in a statement titled “A President and the Endless Question of His Past” issued on Monday via his handle, faulted Tinubu’s handling of the US case.
Peter Obi said records regarding a sitting President’s background have become an issue of legitimate public interest.
He said it was embarrassing that a sitting Nigerian president would approach a foreign court seeking to prevent the release of records concerning him, particularly documents he said were matters of legitimate public interest.
Reacting, Nwabufo, in a post on his handle, insisted that there is no such thing as an imperfect past for Tinubu, stressing that the issues in the US case had already been settled, having been found to be “patently false and libellous”.
Nwabufo also alleged that Peter Obi’s stint as governor of Anambra was inglorious and reeked of maladministration, which he (Tinubu’s aide) witnessed while he was rounding off from University at the time.
He wrote, “Mr Obi @PeterObi, it is important that disciplined conversations guide the campaigns and that ideas remain the thrust of engagement.
“In response to your ludicrous claims. There is no so-called ‘imperfect past’. The issues have been routinely investigated and found to be patently false and libellous and have even been determined by the highest court of the land.
“This refrain is a tired and expired one, regurgitated every election cycle from the bowels of a failing and failed opposition who have nothing to campaign with but slander and slurs.
“Your past, Mr Obi, particularly as governor of Anambra, is a chequered and inglorious one defined by religious segregation between Catholics and Anglicans, kidnappings, strikes by teachers, doctors, and the judiciary, as well as extra-judicial killings at an unprecedented scale, including poor and decaying infrastructure; roads that become flatulent after three months.
“I am a principal witness to your maladministration in Anambra, as I was rounding off from university at the time you were governor.”
“What else do you have to show Nigerians to entrust their mandate?”
