Breaking: Peter Obi reacts to Edeoga’s court victory, says corruption being recycled

…refuses to issue congratulatory message as Odengene vows to reclaim ticket

By Omeje Damian

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi has descended hard on the embattled governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Enugu State, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, over his recent victory at the Court of Appeal, saying he would not identify with people with tags of corruption and incompetence.

Obi, while reacting on Friday over the Court of Appeal’s judgment upturning the decision of the Federal High Court delivered on November 9, 2022 which sacked Edeoga and ordered a fresh primary election, said the decision to recognize Edeoga’s candidacy was purely a party affair within the state which he would not allow himself to be entangled with.

He, however, subtly disdained the judgment as largely being influenced by corruption and other extraneous interferences.

The presidential candidate, who lamented that most judgments are being tainted by corruption, maintained that those who failed in previous public offices they held should not be voted or allowed to hold further public positions as that would spell doom for the country.

As at the time of filing this report, it was not clear whether Mr. Obi would extend an olive branch to Edeoga by congratulating him due to the humongous corruption stigma hanging over his neck when he served as a commissioner in the state.

Recall that Obi had been visibly avoiding Edeoga in public functions in order not to come under fire or draw the ire of his supporters due to Edeoga’s dark records in public offices and over the alleged two billion naira he looted from the state treasury when he served as commissioner for Local Government and Environment, respectively, using a private-owned magazine.

Reacting to the judgment of the Court of Appeal, the respondent, Chief Evarest Nnaji, also known as Odengene, called for calm among his supporters, adding that his legal team was still studying the decision and would issue a public statement soon.

Odengene, while regretting the ratio decidendi behind the judgment on the pretext that he had no locus standi to institute the action in the first place, vowed to contest the judgement at the Supreme Court, assuring his supporters that hope was still very much alive.

More details later…