The legal wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has threatened to report former actor and politician Kenneth Okonkwo to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) over what it described as repeated and malicious attacks on the party’s 2027 presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
The threat was issued by the NDC Legal Advocates for Ethics, led by Dr. Maxwell Opara, following recent allegations made by Okonkwo against Obi and the South-East caucus of the party.
The group accused Okonkwo, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), of conduct unbecoming of a legal practitioner and gave him 48 hours to withdraw the allegations and issue an unreserved public apology.
The development comes as Obi has also initiated moves to file a ₦5 billion defamation suit against Okonkwo over the claims.
The controversy arose after Okonkwo’s appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, where he alleged that Obi and the South-East caucus of the NDC demanded ₦10 million bribes from House of Representatives aspirants in exchange for automatic tickets.
Okonkwo reportedly cited a message and payment receipt allegedly sent to him by Obunike Ohaegbu, an NDC House of Representatives aspirant for the Nnewi North-South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituency in Anambra State. He claimed the aspirant was defrauded after making the payment.
He further alleged that Obi, rather than overseeing credible primary elections, stayed at Johnwood Hotel in Abuja and personally compiled a list of preferred candidates for submission to the party. Okonkwo also stated that anyone voting for the NDC was endorsing criminality.
However, Obi, through a pre-action letter signed by his lawyer, Alex Ejesieme (SAN), rejected the allegations, describing them as false and defamatory.
The letter demanded that Okonkwo retract the statements and publish a public apology on Channels Television and across all his social media platforms within seven days. Obi also requested ₦5 billion in general, aggravated and exemplary damages for the alleged harm to his reputation.
In a separate statement, the NDC Lawyers Group accused Okonkwo of abandoning issue-based political engagement and focusing instead on attacking Obi.
“Instead of selling the policies and vision of his own party and candidate to Nigerians, Mr. Okonkwo has made it his preoccupation to malign Mr. Peter Obi,” the group stated.
The lawyers described the allegations as false and challenged Okonkwo to provide evidence to support his claims or withdraw them and apologise.
“Those allegations are false. We challenge him to bring evidence or retract and apologise. Otherwise, his conduct will be reported to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee,” the group said.
The group also cautioned Okonkwo against what it described as using Igbo ethnic identity to justify reckless and baseless political attacks. According to the lawyers, the Igbo people and Nigerians generally should not be used as cover for political attacks and alleged misconduct.
The NDC Lawyers Group said it would not remain silent while the reputation of its presidential candidate was being damaged for political advantage and warned that failure to comply with its demands would lead to the activation of all available legal remedies.
The group maintained that political disagreements should be conducted within the bounds of the law, ethics and professional responsibility, particularly when the person making the allegations is a legal practitioner.
As of the time of filing this report, Okonkwo had not publicly responded to the threat of disciplinary action by the LPDC.