The campaign team of the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has said those criticizing him over the removal of Next International (UK) Limited from the record in 2021 are seeking to make political gains.
According to an online paper, the company which it said was owned by Peter Obi was struck off for failing to submit its annual accounts by UK authorities in September 2021
But the head of media of the Obi-Datti media office, Diran Onifade, noted that Obi had since left the company having served as its chief executive officer, adding that at the time Obi became governor of Anambra State in 2006, his wife assumed management of the company.
He said, “In order that the huge human and material resources deployed to search and locate any negative against the high flying Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi is not seen to have been wasted, anything could be concocted to justify the efforts.
“We have watched with bemused skepticism as agents of the political opposition unsettled by the high rising profile of the Labour Party flag bearer, ran around and made fools of themselves over the Next International (UK) Limited being removed from the record in 2021.”
“Ordinarily, this is the type of mischief and impishness that should deserve no response but for the credulous in our midst who are the real target by this impairment.
“For the record, the entity was 99% owned by Next Nigeria International Ltd. and established as its buying office in the 90s and Peter Obi was its CEO. At the time Peter Obi became governor of Anambra State in 2006, his wife assumed management of the winding down of the company and about one year ago requested that the company be dissolved under the voluntary strike off of the entity on grounds of dissolution and being inoperational, which is normal in winding up an entity.
Peter Obi has consistently maintained that he is no longer involved in any Next related business.”
He added that when their principal (Obi) insists that people should go and verify facts about him and the information he dishes out, he didn’t say they should go and falsify facts.
“The LP candidate by his antecedents in Anambra state for eight years, in private ventures where he heldsway his records among the pack in this race for the Presidency, puts him miles ahead in moral rating,” he added.