Just In : Obasanjo Hired Russian Lawyer ‘Natalia Veselnitskaya’ For Peter Obi? – Fresh Fact Emerge
According to several social media posts, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has flown in a Russian-based lawyer to reclaim the mandate of Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi during the presidential election tribunal.
“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.
The user @convenantadarego added that that Natalia Veselnitskaya is a close associate of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, “She has never lost a case before. She is the special adviser to President “Putin” and was the same lawyer woman that defeated America in a court case against heavy sanctions on Russia. According to reports, she doesn’t believe in adjournment, she stands for you once in court”.
Similar claims were made by Twitter user Dennejoor in a now-deleted post.
The two Twitter posts were shared on Friday, May 5.
Both posts have since gathered 642 likes, 135 retweets, more than 50 thousand views from Twitter users and several comments.
“I hear she represented Donald Trump,” reads one of the comments.
The Claim:
Obasanjo flies in a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to reclaim Peter Obi’s mandate.
The Findings:
The 2023 Presidential Election Petitions Court is scheduled to commence on Monday, May 8 with a pre-hearing session. The election petition courts is organised to clarify the disputed declaration of All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer Bola Tinubu as the president-elect.
Tinubu was declared the winner of the presidential election on February 25 by INEC, with 8,794,726 votes.
Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), received 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), received 6,101,533 votes.
Abubakar retained the services of 19 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to challenge the election result, whereas Obi retained the services of at least 20 SANs to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
Speaking to The ICIR on Saturday, May 6, Obasanjo’s media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, stated that Obasanjo did not employ or invite the services of a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to reclaim Peter Obi’s mandate for the presidential election tribunal.
Akinyemi emphasized that Nigerians must question the report’s credibility and authenticity.
“It is a rumour that is unconfirmed, and it has got nothing to do with Obasanjo. Also, it is not from a credible medium,” he stated.
Further findings revealed that no credible media outfit published the report as claimed.
The Verdict
The claim that former president Olusegun Obasanjo invited Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer, to reclaim Peter Obi’s victory during the presidential electoral tribunal is FALSE.
Credit: The ICIR
