Peter Obi has named Sowore a “Blackmailer in Chief” over Sahara Reporters‘ false report on Fidelity Bank.
Newsone Nigeria reports that the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Thursday, May 22, 2025, described Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, as a “blackmailer” and “self-proclaimed ‘ blackmailer-in-chief” in response to a story published by Sahara Reporters about Fidelity Bank.
This online news platform recalls that Sowore’s Sahara Reporters claimed that Obi’s recent meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Rome during the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV was to allow the former Anambra governor to plead with the president on behalf of Fidelity Bank, a bank Obi once led.
The report claimed that “The bank, where Obi once served as chairman and in which he still reportedly holds a significant stake, is facing a ₦225 billion judgment debt stemming from a longstanding legal battle with Sagecom Concept Limited.”
Quoting sources, Sahara Reporters claimed that “Obi had attempted to arrange a private meeting with the President at his hotel, but the Presidency declined, insisting that any interaction must occur publicly. The brief Vatican exchange was therefore orchestrated as a compromise.”
Displeased by the falsehood, the former Anambra State governor took to the micro-blogging site, X, formerly known as Twitter, to deny seeking a meeting with President Tinubu to discuss Fidelity Bank.
Obi said the only time he encountered the president was in a brief moment during the inauguration mass of Pope Leo XIV at Saint Peter’s Basilica.’
“One such individual, whose entire life revolves around blackmail, falsely claimed that I went to Rome to have a private meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu regarding a purported ₦225 billion debt crisis involving Fidelity Bank. These claims are not only baseless, malicious, but entirely false,” Obi wrote.
“Let me categorically state that I have never sought an audience with, nor met, President Tinubu since he assumed office, except about 1 minute meeting at the arena of Saint Peter’s Basilica Rome during the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV, where I was seated behind, and had to respectfully greet him, and other dignitaries present,” he added.
It’s obvious that the biggest business for blackmailers now is talking about Peter Obi from every negative perspective. Even my solemn spiritual trip to Rome has been twisted into yet another blackmail campaign by merchants paid ostensibly to propagate anything negative against…
— Peter Obi (@PeterObi) May 22, 2025
Obi was the candidate of the Labour Party during the 2023 presidential election, while Sowore ran on the platform of the African Action Congress (AAC), where he struggled to pull votes.
As one of the 18 candidates on the ballot in the 2023 election, Mr Sowore finished the race in 16th place with only 14,608 votes, less than half of the 33,953 votes he scored when he contested in 2019.
On the other hand, Obi won over 6.1 million votes in the last presidential election, finishing third behind the winner, Bola Tinubu, and Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s perennial opposition candidate.
Meanwhile, Newsone recalls that Sowore was arrested in January 2017 by the Lagos State Police Command for blackmailing his friend and fellow publisher, Lekan Fatodu. Sowore was arrested after he was confronted by Fatodu on Isaac John Street in Ikeja, the Lagos State capital.
The drama surrounding Sowore’s arrest started when Fatodu took to his Twitter handle and announced, “Breaking! I just got Sowore Omoyele of SaharaReporters arrested for criminal defamation and blackmail, and threat to my life and career.”
Around 6 pm that day, Sowore confirmed the incident in a video he posted on his Facebook wall, where he accused the police of supporting Fatodu while he assaulted him at the Area F Police Command.
