By John Ogunsemore

Former Special Adviser on Public Prosecution to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, Okoi Obono-Obla has faulted former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami over the latter’s criticism of the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) bloc led by former Nasarawa state governor, Tanko Al-Makura.

Malami had argued that Al-Makura’s group lacked the authority to speak for CPC legacy members, insisting that only the faction aligned with former President Muhammadu Buhari — to which Malami belongs — could determine whether or not to engage with the emerging opposition coalition spearheaded by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai.

Speaking on Arise TV on Saturday, Obono-Obla said the CPC bloc of the All Progressives Congress (APC) critical of President Bola Tinubu began plotting against him in April 2024.

He noted that Malami contested an election on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform in 2007 and therefore lacked the moral standing to speak for the CPC.

Obono-Obla said, “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.

“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 Malami emerged as national legal adviser on January 6, 2011, after the
position was zoned to the north-west.

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

Obono-Obla maintained that Malami’s group did not oppose Tinubu on the basis of nonperformance in office.

He said the plan was hatched in April 2024.

“This thing did not start because President Bola Tinubu is not doing well.

“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,” he stated.

Obono-Obla said upon arriving at the venue, he met Malami, some former state chairmen of the CPC and some persons that were expelled from the party in 2011 for endorsing President Goodluck Jonathan.

He said the meeting quickly turned political as Nwajiuba and Malami began criticising the Tinubu administration.

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

“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?’” he said.

According to him, the grievances against Tinubu were longstanding and had nothing to do with underperformance.

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

“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,” he stressed.