A policy group has given reasons why Peter Obi, the Peoples Democratic Party, vice presidential candidate deleted a tweet on his official Twitter account.

The Global Economic Policy Initiative (GEPIn) explained that the tweet was embarrassing to his principal, Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the PDP and other senior members of the party.

President of GEPIn, Bernard Okri, noted that Obi was instructed to delete the tweet following the backlash and embarrassment that Mr Abubakar and the PDP endured.

“In the aftermath of the NEDG/BON Vice Presidential debate which held on 14 December 2018, there were many concerns raised about the numerous facts and figures Mr Obi reeled and the embarrassment was the reason for deleting the tweet.

Okri said Mr Obi did not only regale the entire country with lies at the Vice Presidential candidates’ debate, but also went ahead to post the same falsehoods on Twitter.

“The most incriminating of which was when he claimed that Nigeria in 2015 was generating $41bn in Foreign Direct Investment while the figures have dropped to $12BN last year.”

“Upon fact-checking, this claim it was discovered that the correct figures were actually a meagre $3.4bn according to UNCTAD while the figures given by NBS in 2015 were even lesser” Okri said.

Okri explained that the disgraceful post by Mr Obi has since been deleted and that there are a number of reasons to explain his action.

“The statement was riddled with false figures so outlandish that there really was no way out of explaining the gross difference between $41bn and $3.4bn without looking like an oversized replica of Pinocchio.

“The said tweet must have been a constant reminder of the many gaffes he committed either intentionally or erroneously to both mislead the populace and discredit the current administration during the debate.

Okri also argued that, “He might have been ordered to delete the tweet by his principal, Mr Atiku, whose stock must have taken a direct hit especially with the current vice president’s claim that the Nigerian shop will no longer be left open for corrupt politicians to loot.”

Mr Obi’s tweet that caused a stir read, “In 2015, we generated $21bn in FDI, in 2017, Nigeria attracted only $12bn. Unemployment & underemployment was 24% in 2014. In 2017 it is now 40%. Even our stock market has lost over N2Trillion in one year. You can’t shut down your shop and be chasing criminals.”

However, according to UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) the FDI into Nigeria in 2015 is 3.4 billion dollars and even the entire sub-Saharan Africa have a combined FDI is 41 billion dollars in 2015.

Okri explained that Mr Obi is no stranger to false figures, as it is on record that he claimed to have left zero debt when handing over to Willie Obiano as governor of Anambra State.

“This claim was rubbished when Obiano discovered Anambra was in a whopping N127 billion debt.

Okri added that Obi was once caught on camera saying “when I was leaving this place, we left savings at N26bn. We set aside for important projects the sum of N23.6 billion. If you put the two together, it will come to N48.6 billion.”

The former governor’s contradictory accounts of the exact amount he bequeathed his successor leaves huge gaps in the emerging narrative of dubious accountability and an even more doubtful integrity, Okri explained.

“This becomes more so in the light of the revelation that in Obi’s so-called N75 billion handover are embedded all manner of moribund and toxic assets which he cleverly reported as profitable investments in the handover note.”

“He is one man who can keep a straight face, while dishing out lies and half-truths, even on mundane things like the number of wristwatches he owns.

“Obi has fantastically claimed he owned only one wristwatch for 17 years, but just by mere watching videos of his public appearances prior to making that statement portraying false humility, this claim was heavily debunked as grossly misleading.

“In the quest to create a fake goody two-shoes persona, he also claimed to own only one house, but records show that he has a house in Anambra, another in Lagos and a property in the UK,” Okri said.