Peter Obi Responds to Sowore and Sahara Reporters’ Claims on Fidelity Bank Debt

Peter Obi, former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has responded strongly to a recent publication by Sahara Reporters alleging his involvement in a purported ₦225 billion debt crisis linked to Fidelity Bank.

The report also claimed that Obi traveled to Rome for a secret meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the matter.

In a detailed rebuttal, Obi dismissed the claims as “baseless, malicious, and entirely false,” accusing Sahara Reporters and its alleged sources of engaging in deliberate blackmail.

“The biggest business for blackmailers now is talking about Peter Obi from every negative perspective,” Obi said in a statement. “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 addressed the claim that he owns Fidelity Bank, clarifying that while he once served as Chairman/Director, he is not an institution owner. “Fidelity has over 500,000 shareholders, none of whom hold a majority stake,” he noted. “What this blackmailer seeks is to harm these hard-working Nigerians and cause them needless distress.”

He also debunked the allegation that he met President Tinubu privately in Rome, stating that he only greeted the President briefly “about one minute” during the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV at Saint Peter’s Basilica.

“I have never sought an audience with, nor met, President Tinubu since he assumed office,” Obi emphasized. “I was in Rome on the 9th of May for the lying in state of Pope Francis. Immediately after the mass and exchanging pleasantries, I went straight from Vatican City to London, and then back to Nigeria.”

Obi condemned the growing trend of politically motivated falsehoods, calling out those he described as “blackmailers-in-chief” who thrive on misinformation and division.

In a closing message, Obi offered a prayer for his detractors: “May God grant you the virtues of gratitude and understanding to know that we came here with nothing and will go with nothing, that they cannot profit from their evil ways.”

He ended his statement with a hopeful reaffirmation: “A new Nigeria is POssible.”