The Arewa Defenders Forum has warned ex-presidential aide, Okoi Obono-Obla, a former Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Prosecutions to steer clear of former Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari and instead face his criminal charges of falsification, forgery of school results and misappropriation of public funds.

The Defenders Forum was reacting to Obono-Obla’s recent comments that Abdulaziz Yari, a front runner in the Senate Presidency race, should be disciplined before he scatters the All Progressives Congress.

A statement by the Forum’s Chairman, Lawal Waziri Bako said Obono-Obla currently on bail on account of charges of forgery, certificate falsification and other corruption-related charges, ought to see himself as grossly incompetent to remark on other personalities or even on any national issue.

“For a person charged with dishonestly” forging a General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level, May/June 1982 (GCE) Statement of Result with candidate No: 09403/247 showing an O’Level credit (6) score for Literature in English and using same “as genuine”, to study Law for the 1985/86 academic session in the University of Jos (UNIJOS), to now venture comments on respected personalities like Yari, is certainly the peak of shameless rascality,” the Defenders Forum said.

The Forum noted that the result falsification and forgery charges are part of 10 counts, charges against Obono-Obla which include corruption allegations instituted against him by the ICPC at the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 1, 2020.

“We cannot forget how Obono-Obla, his former Senior Assistant, Special Duties (Protocol), Aliyu Ibrahim, and the Managing Director of ABR Global Petroleum Resources Ltd, Daniel Omughele Efe, charged as co-defendants and subsequently, granted bail by the court in the sum of N1 million, with one surety.

“Records available to the public also show how President Muhammadu Buhari suspended Mr Obono-Obla from his position as the chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel (SPIP) for the Recovery of Public Property, based on ICPC report accusing him of “falsification of records and financial impropriety” in August 2019.

“About a month later, on September 17, 2019, the President disbanded the SPIP, ordered the ICPC to conclude its investigations, send its final report to him, and prosecute Mr Obono-Obla, who was also the President’s special adviser and prosecutions.

“In the charges subsequently filed against him, the ICPC alleged, among others, that Mr Obono-Obla, his former Senior Assistant, Special Duties Ibrahim, Aliyu Ibrahim, and the Managing Director of ABR Global Petroleum Resources Ltd, Daniel Omughele Efe, conspired in 2018 and to use their offices to confer an unfair advantage on Mr Ibrahim by allegedly diverting N19,994,185 received from the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to furnish SPIP offices.
“ICPC said in another count that Obono-Obla, around July 2018 in Abuja, as SPIP Chairman “failed to attend/honour an invitation” by ICPC for an investigation, contrary to Section 28(1)(a) and (6) and punishable under section 28(10) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000,” the Forums Chairman, Bako recalled.

The Forum said Obono-Obla an inconsequential factor in the politics of his state who could not be trusted to become Senator in his state should ordinarily be hiding his face in shame and not making unfounded remarks against leaders who have clear record of being trusted and elected to various positions at various times.

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