Former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has debunked reports saying that he travelled to Rome to meet President Bola Tinubu regarding an alleged ₦225 billion debt linked to Fidelity Bank. He recently described the reports as a clear blackmail campaign aimed at ruining his reputation.
Speaking via a press statement, Obi said that the reports saying he met secretly with Tinubu in Rome to seek intervention in a purported financial scandal involving Fidelity Bank are very false.
According to him, even if he once served as a Fidelity Bank board member, his solemn spiritual trip to Rome should not be used as another blackmail campaign by paid merchants intent on spreading falsehoods against his name.
The former Governor blasted blackmailers who have now made it their daily habit to constantly portray all of his activities in a negative light.
“It is clear that the biggest business for blackmailers now is to speak about Peter Obi from every negative angle. Even my solemn spiritual trip to Rome has been distorted into yet another blackmail campaign by paid merchants intent on spreading falsehoods against me,” he said.
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Obi maintained that he never held a private meeting with the president concerning any bank matter, and he has never had a private meeting with President Tinubu ever since he assumed office.
He confirmed that the brief greeting he and the president exchanged at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome was only a respectful gesture between two Nigerian politicians.
“I have never sought an audience with, nor met, President Tinubu since he assumed office, except for a brief, respectful greeting during the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where I was seated behind him alongside other dignitaries.
The self-proclaimed ‘blackmailer-in-chief’ and others who profit from spreading pain and falsehoods have claimed that I own Fidelity Bank. For the record, I do not. Throughout my career, I have served as Chairman or Director of three banks and financial institutions, one of which is Fidelity.
Fidelity has over 500,000 shareholders, none of whom hold a majority stake. What these blackmailers seek is to harm hardworking Nigerians and cause unnecessary distress,” he added.
