The House of Representatives aspirant of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) for Nnewi North, Nnewi South, and Ekwusigo Federal Constituency, Obunike Ohaegbu, popularly known as Nwa Miss, has denied claims that he accused NDC presidential candidate Peter Obi of defrauding supporters during the party’s primary elections.
He, however, said it was the national secretary of the party that demanded a N10 billion bribe from him.
This follows allegations made by Nollywood actor-turned-politician Kenneth Okonkwo during an interview on Channels Television. Okonkwo had accused Obi and other NDC leaders in the South-East of collecting bribes during the party’s recent primaries.
According to Okonkwo, Ohaegbu had sent him an “SOS message” exposing alleged irregularities surrounding the conduct of the primaries.
Okonkwo claimed that anyone voting for Peter Obi and the NDC in 2027 would be “voting for criminality,” adding that Ohaegbu “sent an SOS to me and said that Peter Obi is now the head of criminality. “That they were scammed in NDC.”
He further alleged:
“He said that Kwankwaso approached his supporters and ensured that each constituency produced one candidate to avoid being scammed, but Peter Obi instructed them that all aspirants should enter the field, and they were informed that primaries would take place.
“Recall that Dickson publicly stated that once you pay for your expression of interest form, you would not need to pay any additional fees until you are nominated, at which point you would pay nomination fees.
“All of them complied, but then Peter Obi and the leaders of the South East NDC caucus informed them that after paying for the expression of interest forms, they were required to pay a bribe of N10 million for the House of Representatives and N20 million for the Senate.
“After all of them paid, believing they were the candidates, they were instructed to proceed with the primaries. While the primaries were ongoing, Peter Obi was at the John Wood hotel compiling the names of candidates.
“The aspirant provided me with the receipt of the payment.”
However, appearing on the same platform, Channels Television, Ohaegbu rejected the claims and insisted that he never told Okonkwo that he met Peter Obi during the primary election process, nor did he have any monetary discussions with the former Anambra governor.
Addressing the issue, Ohaegbu said:
“First of all, was there any communication between me and Mr Kenneth Okonkwo? The answer is in the affirmative.
“I have over 2000 people that I send everything I write to, including Kenneth Okonkwo and also His Excellency Peter Obi. The message that triggered this was I sent a broadcast to NDC members, which Peter Obi also received. I said that they should disregard any rumor that suggests that any NDC members have been given an automatic ticket, because that is not what the party told us.
“And the member representing Peter Obi’s federal consistency was asked not to run, because it will not be fair if he runs; it will not be fair to other local governments, and that happened in so many other local governments, so it would be wrong to say that the person representing us, who has never been to my community and not even been to my home since the election, will have an automatic ticket.
“And when, especially, it makes it worse when it’s being rumored that the senatorial candidate will come from his local government.
“So it was after the broadcast I sent that he [Okonkwo] called me. Before I came here, I went for morning mass because I’m a Catholic. As I speak to you, the holy communion is still running in my veins. If I had ever said, either through text or if Kenneth can show anywhere in that message, I said I met with Peter Obi throughout this process. I will apologize.”
Ohaegbu explained that his discussions regarding payments were with the party’s national secretary and not Peter Obi.
He stated:
“As a matter of fact, the national secretary told me that all my discussions with him—he did that in his capacity as the national secretary—and he told me if I have problems, I should go back to the party, which I have actually done this morning. My lawyers will be filing papers against the party.
“But what I’m addressing now is what Okonkwo said that Peter Obi told us to go and pay 10 million naira, that he needed the money for his campaign. The N10 million I paid was paid to the account of the NDC in Fidelity Bank. I never said I paid a bribe.
“So he said I told him that the party, the National Caucus, told us to pay 10 million naira. I never said that, and it’s not in the message. And I will want this conversation to be limited to what he said, I said.
“I’m telling you, Peter Obi never told me to pay 10 million naira; I never told Kenneth Okonkwo that Peter Obi in any way told me to pay 10 million naira. The only person who asked me to pay 10 billion naira is the national secretary.”
Ohaegbu also denied ever telling Okonkwo that Peter Obi and other party leaders were compiling primary election results at John Wood Hotel in Abuja while the elections were still ongoing.
