Peter Obi, Sowore Trade Barbs on X

Two prominent Nigerian politicians, Peter Obi and Omoyele Sowore, engaged in a sharp exchange of insults on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, continuing their ongoing rivalry without directly naming each other.

The confrontation began when Peter Obi accused Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, of being a “blackmailer” and a “self-proclaimed blackmailer-in-chief.” Obi’s comments were in response to a Sahara Reporters article claiming that his recent meeting with President Bola Tinubu was arranged to seek intervention on behalf of Fidelity Bank, where Obi once served as chairman.

Obi denied these claims, explaining that his encounter with President Tinubu was only a brief, coincidental greeting at a Vatican event for Pope Leo XIV. He called the allegations “baseless, malicious, and entirely false,” emphasizing that he had never sought a private meeting with the president.

About two hours later, Sowore responded by calling Obi a “Money Launderer-In-Chief.” He referred to an exclusive Premium TimeS report based on the Pandora Papers investigation, which exposed Obi’s ownership of shell companies in tax havens and alleged violations of Nigerian laws. Sowore mocked Obi’s denial of the Rome meeting, suggesting Obi fabricated the story.