A spokesman for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisation, Yunusa Tanko, has debunked speculation that Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, forged a university certificate owned by his brother.

The allegation was made by Abayomi Arabambi, a spokesman for the Lamidi Apapa faction of the Labour Party. Arabambi claimed in an interview on AIT News that there is a “discrepancy” in the credentials submitted to the party by Obi.

Arabambi claimed that the name written on Obi’s academic certificate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), is different from the name on his NYSC certificate.

He explained that something was “fishy” because the name Obi’s school sent for mobilisation was not what was written on his NYSC certificate.

“I was part of the people who did the screening for him. In the form EC9, we gave him, he wrote that he attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and he wrote that he finished his youth service but unfortunately, in the final submission of the form he only submitted his school certificate,” Arabambi said.

But Tanko in a statement on Monday dismissed the allegations as being from “political hirelings and buccaneers indulged in menial work of character assassination to ostensibly soil the name of our Presidential candidate.”

Tanko said the opposition are desperately trying to make Obi look like a bad product before the Nigerian electorate.

He noted that Obi’s elder brother is alive and that his other sibling who is late was in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, years ahead of Obi and read Computer Science while Obi read Philosophy.

“In one of his pieces of fiction, they claimed that Obi was impersonating his dead senior brother; a farce, slapstick comedy from hell. Obi’s most senior brother is alive. One of his senior brothers who died was in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN years ahead of Obi and read Computer Science while Obi read Philosophy,” Tanko said.

He added that Obi, in his capacity as Labour Party standard bearer, had advised President Bola Tinubu to “rest the certificate-gate around him and save the country further embarrassment by reintroducing himself and putting the records straight.”

“A simple patriotic advisory that was informed by belief in anything that is connected to national development, but their hirelings, freebooters and lawless adventurers prefer to insult our candidate with fabrications.”
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