Table Shaker, RENO OMOKRI
Everyone knows Reno Omokri. He is popularly refered to as the Table Shaker. He was, for a long spell, a close aide and spokesperson for the former President Goodluck Jonathan and then former vice president and presidential flag bearer for the PDP at the 2023 presidential elections, Atiku Abubakar. Reno is a die hard loyalist of Atiku and a staunch supporter of the PDP. He was also once close to the Labour party flag bearer at the last presidential elections, former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi. Indeed, it is no longer a secret that it was Reno Omokri who recommended Peter Obi to Atiku as his running mate for the 2019 presidential election. Atiku trusted Reno’s judgement and made Peter Obi his running mate for the election which was eventually won by former president Muhammadu Buhari. But the closeness and cordial relationship which seemed to exist between Obi and Reno appears to have vanished and in it’s place is a deep seated hatred for each other. Today, it is common place to find Reno intensely criticising his ertwhile friend, Peter Obi, and making nonsense of many of his claims made to enable him score political points against the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In fairness to Obi, it is on record that he has not launched any personal attack against Reno but Obi’s supporters popularly known as the Obidients, have been on Reno’s case, tearing him apart on social media whenever he criticises Peter Obi. They bully him. They insult him. They spread false hood against him and call him all sorts of names. But things took a frightening dimension when the Obidients threatened to take, not just the life of Reno Omokri but also that of his daughter who was only a year old at the time. For Omokri, this was taking things way too far and he drew the battleline between him and Obi plus his supporters. And from the look of things, it does not appear that this battle will end any time soon.
Going by City People findings, Peter Obi appears to have wronged Reno Omokri very deeply. The situation between these two former friends appears to be a lot more intense than most people know. Why has Reno Omokri continued his relentless online assault against Obi for so long? Is there a likelihood he could forgive Obi for whatever wrong he did to him? Here is what City People found out.
Reno Omokri is clearly deeply pained by the threats and insults hurled at him by Peter Obi’s supporters. But what has hurt him the most has been the nonchalance exhibited by Peter Obi to the whole matter. According to Reno, Peter Obi did not try to stop or caution his supporters from threatening the life of his daughter and insulting him, speading all manner of lies against him. Instead he kept quiet, encouraging them to go on. Now, he has vowed not to stop his online assault against Obi, and neither is he ready to forgive him, unless Peter Obi apologises to him publicly, only then will he sheath his sword. Hear him:
“The day Peter Obi apologises publicly (not privately) for what his supporters did to my then one-year-old daughter, on my word, I will leave him alone. Till then, aluta continua!”, he wrote on his verified X handle.
In another tweet, he posted:
“He asked the son of a former vice President to beg me. My response to the young man was, ‘Tell Peter to call me himself’.
“First to do, no dey pain! When they were threatening to kill my child and physically coming to my house until the police gave me a home guard, did he beg? He will continue to shalaye!”
On one occasion that they spoke about the harassment he was getting from Obi’s supporters and the threats to take his daughter’s life, Reno recalls that Obi annoyed him the more with his utterances. “Obi told me those people threatening my life and that of my daughter online are not real Obidients but APC supporters masquerading as his supporters. Like I was born last night!”
He went on further to reveal that an Igbo man who squatted in his Abuja home for two years for free was the one that leaked his home address to those threatening his daughter’s life. “It was when some IPOB looking men came to the house that I knew this was a lot more serious than I thought. The Police had to give me a police office to guard to my home. When all of this was happening, Peter Obi said not a word. If my daughter had been killed, it would not have mattered to him. This is the reason why I have vowed to keep on attacking him, a man like that does not deserve to be the president of Nigeria.”
A few days ago, a concerned Nigerian who had read Reno’s post shared with the public how Obidients threatened his daughter’s life and how Obi looked the other way. He expressed sadness at the unpleasant situation and went on to inform the public that this is one of the reasons why Reno is bent on criticising Peter Obi at every given opportunity. Reno read the post and responded:
“Thank you for your feedback. Not one of the reasons. The ONLY reason. And the annoying thing is that I reached Peter Obi privately, and he was trying to convince me that it was Tinubu’s people masquerading as Obidients. Can you imagine? I have it in writing from him. As if I was born last night! An Igbo man I accommodated free of charge in my house in Abuja for two years leaked my address. They came to my house. IPOB-looking guys came to my house. They concocted all kinds of lies online against me. I cannot forgive a man and a movement that will come after my one year old daughter. Peter Obi will NEVER be President of Nigeria as long as I live. And it will not end with him. Because the behaviour of some people I fought for for eight years of Buhari really opened my eyes to things I had been blind to. Let me not say more.”
Not so long ago, Peter Obi had reacted to the news that the federal government was getting food aid from war torn Ukraine, and he wondered why a country like Nigeria blessed with vast land and energetic people would turn to a war torn country like Ukraine for food aid when it had the potential to feed its people and even parts of Africa.
Reacting to Obi’s comment, Omokri said “Waziri Atiku is the prominent Nigerian opposition leader. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is also a prominent opposition leader. Yet, you don’t see them celebrating every bit of bad news that happens in Nigeria. That is not opposition. That is desperation. A good opposition leader opposed the government in power. They do not oppose their country’s progress.
“Two students of a State University died in a stampede, because the Nasarawa State Government was sharing palliatives at a time when Muslims are fasting for Ramadan and Christians are fasting for lent. You could not condole or be sensitive to the situation. Instead, you released a post blaming the Federal Government for something that occurred at a state level.”
Omokri added that “meanwhile, more people died at stampedes in your state when you were Governor. Absolutely nobody politicised it. Please fact-check me, Peter Obi is too desperate to be President, which is not a good sign.
“Those who want to serve the people are usually passionate. They are never desperate. Desperation is a trait of those who want to serve themselves!
“Just watch how his desperate followers will come here insulting. Do you know why they insult? Because they cannot dispute the facts above.”
It remains to be seen if these two erstwhile friends will ever be friends again. It remains to be seen if Peter Obi will ever find it necessary to apologise to Reno Omokri for the threats made to his life and that of his daughter by Obi’s Obidients. And for how long will Reno continue to shred Obi apart online? Time, they say, will surely tel….
-WALE LAWAL
(08037209290)
