The political heat around Labour Party leader Peter Obi has spiked again.
This time, the battle is not on the campaign trail but inside a courtroom, where a fresh legal push is demanding full public access to the former presidential candidate’s school and service papers ahead of 2027.
The Storm Gathered In Abuja Court
A Labour Party chieftain, Abayomi Arabambi, has dragged three federal institutions before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
In three separate suits filed on September 1 and September 9, he is asking for an order of mandamus to compel WAEC, the University of Nigeria Nsukka, and NYSC to release certified true copies of records bearing the name Gregory Peter Onwubuasi Obi.
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The cases are: FHC/ABJ/CS/2064/2026 against WAEC, FHC/ABJ/CS/2063/2026 against NYSC, and FHC/ABJ/CS/2144/2026 against UNN.
According to court filings reported by The New Diplomat, Arabambi says formal FoI requests and reminders sent to the bodies were ignored past the deadline set by the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
What Arabambi Is Demanding
The applicant is not asking the court to declare the certificates fake or real. He says he only wants the institutions to open their books.
For UNN, he is seeking the certificate register, academic records, graduation records, and Senate degree-award records tied to Certificate No. D000198, a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy.
From WAEC, he wants confirmation of a June 1978 certificate, No. SC042560. From NYSC, he wants details behind Discharge Certificate No. 203495 issued in May 1986, including how the name “Peter-Onwubuase” appears in their records.
WAEC, in a letter dated August 11, 2026, refused the request citing Sections 14(1)(a) and 14(2)(a) and (b) of the FoI Act. UNN and NYSC, the suit claims, gave no response at all.
Why The Records Matter Now
Arabambi insists the request is about transparency, not politics. He argues that Nigerians have a right to verify the official records of anyone seeking the nation’s highest office, especially with the 2027 presidential election approaching and Obi’s documents already submitted to INEC.
He is asking the court to declare the refusals unlawful, to rule that silence amounts to deemed refusal, and to compel the institutions to state clearly what, if anything, they claim is exempt.
No hearing date has been fixed yet. Until then, the documents remain locked, and the questions around them keep growing louder.
