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Peter Obi, Sowore face-off: 3 times Sowore has been enmeshed in blackmail, defamation, fake news scandal

Obi calls Sowore "Blackmail-in-chief"

Afolabi Hakim by Afolabi Hakim
May 22, 2025
in General, National
Reading Time: 3 mins read
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The social media was agog and went into a frenzy today after the former Anambra State governor lampooned activist and owner of Sahara Reporter Omoyele Sowore. Obi’s scathing statement came after Sahara Reporter, in a report, claimed that Obi sought an audience with President Bola Tinubu and pleaded with him to intervene in the purported ₦225 billion debt crisis involving Fidelity Bank.

Though Obi did not categorically mention Sowore in his statement, any casual follower of current affairs in Nigeria can easily tell who Obi’s statement was targeted at.

Sowore’s penchant for courting controversy and besmirching people’s image is widely known.
He has been embroiled in blackmail and defamation scandals. The recent one was his spurious report on Peter Obi and the Fidelity Bank case

Here are three times Sowore has been enmeshed in blackmail, defamation and fake news scandals.

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Peter Obi, fidelity Bank and Sowore

Obi debunked Sahara Reporter’s report claiming that he met with Tinubu at the arena of Saint Peter’s Basilica Rome during the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV over ₦225 billion debt crisis involving Fidelity Bank. The report is in line with Sowore’s use of Sahara Reporter to attack those he perceived as enemy.

He described the report as “baseless, malicious, but entirely false,” adding that “It’s obvious that the biggest business for blackmailers now is talking about Peter Obi from every negative perspective.”

Obi who stated that he had never sought an audience with Tinubu since the latter came to office labelled Sowore “blackmailer-in-chief”

He also disclosed that he is not the owner of Fidelity Bank, noting that “throughout my career, I have served as Chairman/Director of 3 banks/Financial institutions, of which Fidelity is one of them. Fidelity has over 500,000 shareholders, none of whom hold a majority stake. What this blackmailer seeks is to harm these hard-working Nigerians and cause them needless distress.”

Obi’s reaction to the report is a departure from his practice of not responding to attacks on him or engaging in name-calling and mudslinging. He had to make an exception this time around because a business entity was brought into the mix.

Okonjo-Iweala vs Sowore

Former minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was also a victim of Sowore’s troubling antics and unpleasant actions.

In her book, Fighting Corruption is Dangerous, Madam Okonjo-Iweala, who is the current Director General of the World Trade Organisation, chronicled how Sowore used Sahara Reporter to hound and defame her by publishing numerous fake, negative and outrageous news about her.

She wrote “In the days following Governor Donald Duke’s departure from Washington and our extraordinary conversation, I was mulling all this over and trying to figure out what it would mean should I accept the assignment when the attacks began. Friends and family alerted me to a spate of articles that had begun to appear in a Nigerian online news outlet, Sahara Reporters, that were attacking me and the notion of my return to government as Finance Minister.

“My initial reaction was to dismiss this as a stunt by an attention-seeking news outlet. I had an unpleasant encounter with Sahara Reporters when I was a minister. One night I received a call on a private phone line that I had reserved for use only by my family. When I picked up the phone expecting a family member, a voice said this was Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters and he had some questions for me to answer. I was outraged and asked how he came about my private number. Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, basically told me he had his sources, but how he got the number was not the issue; I was a public servant, he had a right to call me on any number at any time, and I should answer his questions. I told him in no uncertain terms that he had no right to intrude on my privacy. Shortly after, a tape of our conversation appeared on the Internet. Not only had this man violated all rules of decent behaviour, but he had gone beyond to do something as unethical as taping our conversation without my knowledge or permission. I did not think this was a news medium worthy of attention.

Sahara Reporters began publishing negative articles at the rate of almost one a day in late May and through June and July 2011. Clearly, something was afoot. The articles took different approaches in their attacks.”

Lekan Fatodu vs Sowore

In 2017, Sowore was arrested for allegedly “Blackmailing” a friend and UK-based journalist, Lekan Fatodu.

Fatou, the founder of Leeman Communications, a media services firm and publisher of Checkout Magazine, claimed the got Sowore arrested for “criminal defamation and blackmail and threat to my life and career.”

“I’m sure you guys will remember how Sowore lied against me that I was used as a front to receive N1.7 billion of the National Security funds.

“My refusal to agree to Sowore’s criminal demands and cut from the fictitious money made him to viciously attack my personality on his website. And imagine this is someone I’ve known, and I’ve been assisting for almost 20 years,” Fatodu wrote on his Facebook page.

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