Obono-Obla: Tinubu’s critics in CPC began plotting against him in 2024

Okoi Obono-Obla, former special adviser on public prosecution to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, says members of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) bloc who are critical of President Bola Tinubu began plotting against him in April 2024.

Speaking on Arise TV on Saturday, Obono-Obla dismissed Abubakar Malami’s claim that the CPC bloc’s declaration of loyalty to Tinubu did not reflect the position of the group.

He said Malami lacks the moral standing to speak for the CPC, having contested an election in 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“He has no right. Malami cannot speak for CPC. He came from PDP. He had even ran for election in 2007 under the platform of PDP,” he said.

“As I told you, I was among the people who put the political association known as CPC together.

“When we went to register that association as a political party, I was among the national officers who went to INEC to register that political association as a political party. That was in 2008. He was not there.

“I became the national interim adviser from 2008 to 30th December 2010. And then the party was already registered by INEC in 2010. We were going to have our first national convention.

“So they asked those of us who were interim officers and interested in contesting in the national convention to resign, and I resigned.”

He said the position of national adviser was zoned to the north-west and Malami emerged as national legal adviser on January 6, 2011.

“I emerged as national deputy secretary from January 2011 until CPC was dissolved,” he said.

‘A DINNER THAT TURNED POLITICAL’

Obono-Obla accused Malami and others of initiating plans to undermine Tinubu’s government less than a year after the president assumed office.

“This thing did not start because President Bola Tinubu is not doing well,” he said.

“Last year, 28th of April, Emeka Nwajiuba, who was minister of state for education, he was also a member of the CPC merger committee.

“He’s from Imo state. He invited me for a meeting. He said, ‘Obla come, we want to have dinner in a hotel in Maitama, Abuja, to celebrate Sallah’.

“So I went, innocently. I didn’t know what they were going to do. I just went to have dinner.”

Obono-Obla said he met Malami and several former CPC state chairmen at the event, including individuals previously expelled from the party.

“You know, because I was a national officer, we expelled some people in 2011,” he said.

“After Jonathan was elected, because some of them endorsed President Jonathan after the election, we were very angry, so we expelled them.

“All those people were there, and something told me that this thing is political.”

Obono-Obla said the meeting quickly turned political, with Nwajiuba and Malami criticising the Tinubu administration.

“So the meeting started. Emeka spoke, denounced the government of President Bola Tinubu,” he said.

“That government was not yet up to one year in office. It was on the 28th of April, 2024. Then Malami spoke. Then the people they invited, some of them were very unhappy, they were angry.

“They said, ‘look, we put you in government, ministers for eight years, you were very powerful.

“Somebody like Abubakar Malami, he was very powerful. ‘What did you do to help CPC as a party? What did you do to ensure that CPC is not marginalised? Why are you now coming to us?’”

Obono-Obla said it became clear to him that the grievance was longstanding and politically motivated.

“They couldn’t say anything, and so they started planning this thing since last year. It’s not today,” he added.

“That is what I’m saying. So it’s planned, it’s not because the current president is not doing well. They have something that is disturbing them, and we don’t like it.”

On Friday, Osita Okechukwu, a chieftain of the APC and former director-general of the Voice of Nigeria, refuted claims that the CPC bloc within the party intends to defect ahead of the 2027 elections.

Speaking on ‘The Morning Show’ on Arise TV, Okechukwu stated that the CPC bloc remains committed to supporting Tinubu’s second term bid.