Did Peter Obi actually break the Law?

This Day

By Eti Best Herbert

I had the privilege to stumble on a report titled: “Pandora Papers: Inside Peter Obi’s secret businesses — and how he broke the law”. It was written by one Taiwo-Hassan Adebayo and published in Premium Times Newspaper on the 4th day of October, 2021. Most Nigerians and indeed my humble self, had perceived Peter Obi to be an epitome of transparency, good governance, patriotism and economic astuteness. This perception heightened my curiosity to read through the article in order to discover the hidden secrets which the article had to bear against the former two term Governor of Anambra State and the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election. Having read through the article, my lawyerly self queried whether Peter Obi actually violated the law as alleged in the article. This prompted my decision to dispassionately test the allegations against Obi against the provisions of the law.

The allegations in the article basically border on allegations of tax evasion and non-declaration of certain jointly owned assets by Obi. It was argued that Obi committed the offence of tax evasion by establishing a company outside the shores of Nigeria in “havens where little or no taxes are paid”. It was further argued that Obi committed a crime by non-declaration of some of his jointly owned assets outside the shores of Nigeria and failure to resign from the board of directors of those companies 14 months after assuming the office of the governor in Anambra State. These allegations shall be addressed seriatim.

It must be stated there is a world of difference between allegation, facts and evidence. Allegations are mere claims and assertion of a person’s wrongdoing that are not yet proven. Facts are events that are confirmed or verifiable. While evidence are concrete facts used to support an assertion or a claim. At the moment, the claims of Adebayo against Obi are still within the realm of mere allegations. However, this article will proceed with the assumption without necessarily conceding that Adebayo’s claims against Obi are factual, as the said Obi still enjoys the presumption of innocence in his favour as protected by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This presumption stands unshaken until otherwise proven.

A cursory look at Adebayo’s article would reveal that the author seems to have confused tax avoidance for tax evasion. It is appreciated that both terms may easily be mistaken one for another or erroneously used interchangeably except for persons who are well informed about tax laws. In simple terms, tax evasion is an offence, whereas tax avoidance is not an offence. At this point, it must be stated that on the authority of Section 36 (12) of the Nigerian Constitution, a person shall not be held liable for an offence except such offence is expressly defined by a written law and a sentence specifically prescribed thereto. The case of George v. FRN (2015) All FWLR (Pt. 718) 879 is apt in this regard.