The preliminary hearing for Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petition Tribunal was held on May 8, 2023. As expected, rumours and claims began to spread on social media. One of them is this tweet from a Twitter user who claimed that the attorney for the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was the same attorney who defended Nnamdi Kanu, a political activist and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a secessionist group.
The verified Twitter user backed up his claim with a photo of Obi surrounded by five lawyers. We discovered that two of them are Mike Ozekhome and Yusuf Ali, alongside three other legal personalities.
The tweet had been viewed about 400,000 times as of the time of this report and had been shared on other social media platforms.
Simon Ekpa, the self-acclaimed leader of IPOB, also tweeted a variation of the tweet, claiming that Mike Ozekhome was on Peter Obi’s legal team.
Claim: The lawyer on Peter Ob’s legal team is the same one who represented Nnamdi Kanu
Verification
Who represented Nnamdi Kanu in court?
Since his run-in with the Nigerian government, Nnamdi Kanu has had a string of legal representations.
Mike Ozekhome was named to lead his delegation of legal practitioners in January 2022. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who is also on the team, is his legal counsel.
Is Mike Ozekhome representing Peter Obi at the Election Tribunal?
The election petition prepared by Obi’s legal team includes a list of the legal practitioners who represent the petitioner. Mike Ozekhome’s name does not appear on the list.
We, however, found Ozekhome to be among the legal team of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was inaugurated in March 2023. His name was included in the petition submitted by the team.
Further investigation revealed that Ozekhome and Atiku have had a clientele relationship since 2017. He is also currently representing the latter in the alleged money laundering case filed by Festus Keyamo.
Another senior lawyer found in the attached image to the tweet is Yusuf Ali, a member of Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s legal team.
We found that the lead counsel to Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP), Onyechi Ikpeazu, has never represented Nnamdi Kanu or the IPOB secessionist group.
Verdict: False
The claim that Peter Obi’s lawyer is the same one defending Nnamdi Kanu is false.