Squandered: His Running Mate, His Party Chairman and the Vice-President Turn on Peter Obi in One Week
Between Monday and Friday the man who ran beside him in 2023, the chairman who handed him the ticket, and Kashim Shettima each said a version of the same thing: that Peter Obi has thrown away what he had. One of them promises “more damaging things.” None of them has produced a document. Here is what each one actually alleges, and what Obi’s side says back.
The word came three times in five days.
On Monday 2 November, Julius Abure, who chaired the Labour Party when it carried Peter Obi to third place in 2023, told Punch that Obi “has squandered his goodwill, human capital, resources, and mismanaged all the gains he had in 2023.” The same day, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the man on the ticket beside him that year, told Symfoni TV that Obi’s supporters attack him “because I told you the truth about Peter Obi,” and added: “I have more damaging things to reveal.” On Friday 6 November, at a ruling-party rally in Uyo, Vice-President Kashim Shettima said Obi “has run himself out of this race with his lies and bogus statistics” and had “squandered away his goodwill.” Documented
Three men, one word, no paper.
He has squandered his goodwill, human capital, resources, and mismanaged all the gains he had in 2023.
You attack me because I told you the truth about Peter Obi. I have more damaging things to reveal.
Clearly this gentle man has run himself out of this race with his lies and bogus statistics.
This site exists to set claims beside the record. So that is what follows: each accusation, where it came from, what it rests on, and what the accused has said. The reporting is by Punch, Daily Trust, Naija News, Legit, Leadership, Channels Television, Blueprint, Tribune and the Anambra State Government’s own press office. We have added nothing to any quotation.
The chairman
Mr Abure’s grievance is organisational, and he says so. His case, as Naija News reports his Punch interview, is that Obi’s exit from the Labour Party, together with Governor Alex Otti of Abia, dismantled the party’s structure “from the ward to the national level,” the machinery that produced the 2023 vote. “Obi’s behaviour in the Labour Party is now what people are using to assess if he can truly lead the country,” he said. His prediction: Obi “will not record the successes he recorded in the 2023 general election.” His position: “I am very sure that I wouldn’t support Peter Obi for the 2027 general election.” Alleged
Whom he will support, he would not say. Labour, he said, is “open to working with any of the major candidates” once the Supreme Court rules on the party’s leadership case, or by the end of November if it has not. He quoted Ibrahim Babangida: “I know whom I will not hand over to. But I don’t know who I will hand over to.” Several outlets wrote that up as an opening to Tinubu or Atiku. In the quoted text he names neither.
Obi’s camp answered the same day. Constance Ikokwu, spokesperson for the NDC campaign council: “Mr Peter Obi is fully occupied with the campaign trail … all we can say is good luck to Mr Julius Abure in his new ventures.” Idris Zekeri, Obi’s media aide, said Abure had placed “his personal sentiment and belief above national interest,” and that “we no longer talk about Abure. We have moved on from them.” Denied
Two things are worth holding onto. Mr Abure and Mr Obi have been on opposite sides of a leadership fight since 2024, and the party he chairs is itself the subject of a Supreme Court case. That is context, not a verdict on either man.
The running mate
Mr Baba-Ahmed’s quarrel is older and more personal. In September, on Trust TV, he said that when he listed the 2027 contenders who could not fix Nigeria and was asked whether that included Obi, “I said, ‘Yes, including Peter Obi.’” He has since said the answer was about giving every candidate “a level playing ground,” and that Nigerians missed his point. In the same interview he gave his account of the split: “I did everything to keep Peter Obi in, he moved out to ADC and I told him, it is not a place for you.” Documented · Leadership
The November remarks are sharper. Obidients, he said, “are always eager to attack me.” Then the line that travelled: “I have more damaging things to reveal.” Naija News, which reported the interview, records no detail of what those things are. Nor does any other outlet we found. Six days on, the revelation remains a promise. Unresolved
“I have more damaging things to reveal.”Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Symfoni TV · reported by Naija News, 2 November 2026
We found no response from Obi or his campaign to Mr Baba-Ahmed. His supporters’ response, as reported, was to accuse the former running mate of working for Atiku Abubakar. He says he remains a Labour Party member.
A threat to reveal is not a revelation. We will publish what he produces, if he produces it.
The Vice-President
Mr Shettima has been running this line since the ruling party’s campaign council was inaugurated at the Presidential Villa on 14 October. There, Legit reports, he called Obi “my very good friend” and “the master of bogus statistics and incoherent economic prescriptions,” mocked his habit of citing Bangladesh (“a size 36 shirt tailored for Bangladesh will somehow fit Nigeria’s size 52 frame”), and called Obi’s claim to have won in 2023 “delusion of grandeur.” Documented · Legit
At Uyo on Friday, according to Daily Trust, he went further: Obi has “run himself out of this race with his lies and bogus statistics,” Nigerians no longer respond when he speaks, and he had slipped abroad “to have a rest” and avoided Lagos and Abuja on his return. Daily Trust’s report identifies no statistic Mr Shettima considers false and offers no counter-figure. Neither did the October speech. Alleged
The reply came from the top of the NDC ticket. The day after the October speech, Rabiu Kwankwaso told Channels Television: “I don’t think he is correct. So, I am happy that our presidential candidate is conversant with statistics.” He said he checks the figures Obi cites and most hold up. Denied
That cuts both ways. A Vice-President who calls a rival’s figures bogus without naming one has made a slogan, not a case. A candidate whose running mate vouches for his numbers has offered a character reference, not an audit. The one place Obi’s figures have been tested against documents this autumn is Awka, and that is where the next section goes.
The one file with paper in it
On 24 September Obi told Arise TV that he did not go to the World Bank or the Debt Management Office to borrow, and that no other governor saved as he did. Two days later the Anambra State Government published a 1,700-word statement under the title “Peter Obi’s Debts and Lies: More Questions Than Answers,” signed by its information commissioner, Law Mefor. It lists eight World Bank IDA loans signed during his eight years, totalling $123.77 million, with $92.35 million outstanding at 30 June 2026 and serviced from the state’s federal allocation. It says a First Bank letter of 16 September shows the account in which Obi says he left ₦2.13 billion of ecological money never held anything like that sum. It says his roughly $14 million brewery stake, once described as worth “over $100 million,” is now worth under $3 million. And it contains the sentence the Presidency then amplified: “No one blames him for being a pathological liar.” Alleged · Anambra State Govt
Bayo Onanuga, the President’s information adviser, posted the statement with his own verdict: “He is unfit to govern Nigeria.” Alleged
That document is the only one in this week’s pile that cites loan agreements, a bank letter and account numbers. It is also a press release from a government whose governor Obi campaigned against in 2021 and 2025, and it says so itself. Our reading of the underlying debt dispute, including Obi’s side of it and his former SSG’s handover letter, is in the Anambra debt file, which we have updated today. The headline fact has not changed since September: Obi dared anyone to prove he left debts and said he would stop campaigning if they did. The state says it has. He has not stopped, and he has not answered the eight loans by name. Unresolved
Inside his own house
The week’s criticism did not all come from opponents. On 27 September the NDC’s Anambra chairman, David Chukwudifu, told Punch that the Obidient Movement had “sidelined every one of us, including me and the 326 ward chairmen in the state,” and that “we have called on Peter Obi himself, but he is not responding to our calls.” The party’s Kano chairman replied that the movement must work under the party’s rules. No response from Obi was reported. Alleged
And on Thursday 5 November, the night a Federal High Court voided Atiku Abubakar’s ADC nomination, Obi posted that he had received the news “with shock,” called it “unsettling and surprising,” and said: “I do not challenge the ruling of the court … One mark of democracy is that at all times, it is voters and not courts that choose leaders.” He blamed “the ruling party” for instability in the opposition. It was the most measured statement any opposition figure made that night, and it was about his rival. Documented · Blueprint
The calendar
- 2 – 29 May 2026
Out of the ADC, into the NDC
Obi leaves the ADC coalition he joined at the turn of the year. On 29 May the Nigeria Democratic Congress ratifies him as presidential candidate with Rabiu Kwankwaso as running mate.
Documented - 24 – 26 September
Arise TV, then Awka answers
Obi says he never borrowed from the World Bank or the DMO. The Anambra government publishes “Peter Obi’s Debts and Lies.” Onanuga: “unfit to govern.”
Alleged - 27 September
“He is not responding to our calls”
The NDC’s Anambra chairman says the Obidient Movement has sidelined the party’s 326 ward chairmen.
Alleged - 14 – 15 October
“Master of bogus statistics”
Shettima at the APC campaign council inauguration. Kwankwaso on Channels the next day: “I am happy that our presidential candidate is conversant with statistics.”
Documented - 2 November
The chairman and the running mate
Abure to Punch: “squandered his goodwill.” Baba-Ahmed to Symfoni TV: “more damaging things to reveal.” NDC: “good luck to Mr Julius Abure in his new ventures.”
Documented - 5 November
The court and the rival
A Federal High Court voids Atiku’s ADC nomination. Obi: “It is voters and not courts that choose leaders.”
Documented - 6 November
Uyo
Shettima: Obi “has run himself out of this race with his lies and bogus statistics.” No statistic named. No reply from the NDC found by 8 November.
Unresolved
What the record does not show
- A revelationMr Baba-Ahmed has promised “more damaging things.” As of 8 November he has not said what they are, and no outlet has reported them.
- A false statisticNeither of Mr Shettima’s speeches, as reported, identifies a figure Obi cited and shows it to be wrong. The charge is general.
- A findingNo court, tribunal or auditor has found that Obi lied about anything in this article. “Pathological liar” is a state government’s phrase in a press release; “unfit to govern” is a presidential adviser’s opinion.
- WrongdoingNobody quoted here alleges that Obi took public money. Mr Abure’s complaint is about party structure; the Anambra government’s is about what he borrowed, left and claimed.
- Obi’s answer on the loansHe has not responded, on the record, to the eight named IDA loans or to the First Bank letter. His campaign has answered Abure and, through Kwankwaso, Shettima’s October speech. We found no answer to Baba-Ahmed or to the Uyo remarks.
- Independent verificationWe have not seen the loan agreements, the bank letter or the handover ledgers. We have read the statements and the reporting.
Whether Mr Baba-Ahmed names a single thing. Whether Mr Shettima names a single number. Whether Obi answers the eight loans by name, or honours the dare he issued in September. And what the Supreme Court says about who owns the Labour Party, which decides whom Mr Abure is free to back.
Sources
- Naija News (reporting Punch), “2027: Peter Obi Has Squandered His Goodwill, Mismanaged All Gains Had In 2023 – Abure,” 2 November 2026 · naijanews.com
- Naija News, “2027: NDC Reacts As Abure Rejects Peter Obi, Considers Tinubu, Atiku,” 2 November 2026 · naijanews.com
- BusinessDay, “2027: Abure rejects Obi, weighs support for Tinubu, Atiku,” November 2026 · businessday.ng
- Naija News, “Peter Obi: ‘I Have More Damaging Things To Reveal’ – Datti Baba-Ahmed Fires Obidients,” 2 November 2026 · naijanews.com
- Leadership, “Datti Baba-Ahmed Clarifies Criticism Of Peter Obi, Says Nigerians Missed His Point,” September 2026 · leadership.ng
- Daily Trust, “Obi has run himself out of 2027 race with lies – Shettima,” 6 November 2026 · dailytrust.com
- Legit.ng, “Shettima Knocks Peter Obi: ‘Master of Bogus Statistics’,” 14 October 2026 · legit.ng
- Legit.ng, “‘Bogus Statistics’: Kwankwaso Reacts to Shettima’s Attack on Obi,” 15 October 2026 · legit.ng
- Anambra State Government, “Peter Obi’s Debts and Lies: More Questions Than Answers,” statement by Law Mefor, 26 September 2026 · anambrastate.gov.ng
- Tribune Online, “Peter Obi licensed to lie, unfit to govern Nigeria — Presidency,” 26 September 2026 · tribuneonlineng.com
- Naija News (reporting Punch), “Peter Obi Is Not Responding To Our Calls – Anambra NDC Chairman,” 27 September 2026 · naijanews.com
- Blueprint, “2027 elections: Peter Obi faults court ruling nullifying Atiku’s ADC candidacy,” 6 November 2026 · blueprint.ng
This article reports on, and credits, journalism by Punch, Daily Trust, Naija News, Legit.ng, Leadership, Channels Television, Blueprint, Tribune Online and BusinessDay, and a published statement of the Anambra State Government. The accusations quoted are those of Julius Abure, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Kashim Shettima, Bayo Onanuga, Law Mefor and David Chukwudifu, and are theirs. No court or auditor has made any finding against Peter Obi on the matters described; nobody quoted alleges that he took public money. Responses from his campaign and running mate are quoted where they exist; where we found none, we say so, and his documented response will be added when it is given. Statuses are editorial labels, not legal findings. Corrections and documented responses will be published.