The Labour Party’s nominee for president in the most recent general elections, Peter Obi, has refuted recent reports that he met in private with President Bola Tinubu in Rome to discuss a purported N225 billion debt crisis involving Fidelity Bank.
Obi called the accusations “baseless, malicious, and entirely false” in a statement released on Thursday, denouncing what he called a coordinated blackmail attempt directed at him.
“It’s obvious that the biggest business for blackmailers now is talking about Peter Obi from every negative perspective,” he said.
“Even my solemn spiritual trip to Rome has been twisted into yet another blackmail campaign by merchants paid ostensibly to propagate anything negative against Obi.”
Obi confirmed that the only time he ever saw Tinubu was during a brief moment of courtesy during Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration Mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica, refuting a widely circulated rumour that he had a private meeting with the president in Rome to discuss an issue with Fidelity Bank.
“I have never sought an audience with, nor met, President Tinubu since he assumed office,” Obi stated. “Except for about a 1-minute meeting at the arena of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome, during the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV, where I was seated behind him and had to respectfully greet him and the other dignitaries present.”
Obi added that he had previously travelled to Rome on May 9 to see the late Pope Francis’s lying in state. He left for London right after the Mass and then headed back to Nigeria.
He also responded to long-standing allegations that he is the owner of Fidelity Bank, claiming that they are wholly baseless and detrimental to regular Nigerians who buy stock in the company.
Although he had held director or chairman positions at three banks during his career, including Fidelity Bank, Obi pointed out that he had never owned any of them.
“What this blackmailer seeks is to harm these hard-working Nigerians and cause them needless distress,” he added.
