Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has said his statement on Peter Odili, former governor of Rivers state which he said on Thursday about CKC was misquoted.
Aprokovibes reports that Peter Obi said he never said he played football matches with Peter Odili while speaking at Portharcourt in Rivers state.
The former governor of Anambra State made the clarification on Saturday following attacks from the opposition political parties that he lied by saying he played matches with the former governor of Rivers State.
Peter Obi said, “My remarks when I visited Port Harcourt have been wrongly interpreted by some people. The former Governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili and I are among other prominent Nigerians that schooled in Christ the King College (CKC) Onitsha, and we remain alumni of the school.
“I did not say that former Governor Odili was my classmate, rather I said that he was a great footballer in my school, and we all cherished and had good memories of his football exploits when we got into the school.
“I was in CKC from 1973 to 1978 and Dr Peter Odili had graduated before I got into the school. He was such a fabulous footballer whose image still loomed large even in our time, especially considering the fact that my Primary School was very close to CKC.
“The Primary School that I attended, Santa Maria School/Holy Trinity School, were both owned by the same Catholic Church that owned Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha.
“In fact, both Primary Schools were feeder schools to CKC, and a large number of pupils who passed through the schools ended up in CKC for secondary education.”
Reno Omokri, a former aide to former president Goodluck Jonathan and a supporter of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was among the first to point out that Peter Obi lied by making reference to Peter Odili in CKC Onitsha.
Reno in a series of tweets said, “Peter Obi’s lie was unnecessary. He could have just said ‘Peter Odili can attest to the fact that I went to CKC College’ and stop there. He just had to embellish it with that football story. A person who lies unnecessarily is also likely to steal unnecessarily!
“By 1966, Peter Odili had finished his studies at CKC. According to him, he gained admission at University College Ibadan, but could not resume due to the civil war. After the war, he began pre-med at Nsukka in 1970, and became a medical student by 1971. Obi lied!”