Obasanjo hired Russian lawyer ‘Natalia Veselnitskaya’ for Peter Obi?

Ahead of the commencement of the sitting of the presidential election tribunal, several social media posts, several social media posts recently claimed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo flew in a Russian-based lawyer to reclaim the mandate of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.

"Obasanjo flies in World-Class Russian lawyer “Natalia Veselnitskaya” to defend Peter Obi ahead of Monday’s Presidential court case,” one of the tweets read.

“According to reports, she is the most dangerous lawyer in the whole world with an unbeatable record” the tweet from the user @SpecialConvenant added.

Another Twitter user, @Classycrystale1, claimed Natalia Veselnitskaya is a close associate of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

Reacting, the media aide to ex-President Obasanjo, Kehinde Akinyemi, said that Obasanjo neither employed nor invited the service of a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya to reclaim Peter Obi’s mandate, according to The ICIR.

He noted that there is a need for Nigerians to question the credibility and authenticity of the report.

“It is a rumour that is unconfirmed, and it has got nothing to do with Obasanjo. Also, it is not from a credible medium,” Akinyemi stated.

Further findings show that no credible media platform published the claim.

The 2023 Presidential Election Petitions Court was scheduled to commence on Monday, May 8, with a pre-hearing session.

The election petition court will settle the disputed declaration of All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer Bola Tinubu as the president-elect.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential poll with 8,794,726 votes.

Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), came third with 6,101,533 votes.

Atiku, Obi and others are challenging the outcome of the election.