Key highlights
- The LP Presidential Campaign Spokesman said Peter Obi who was detained at Heathrow airport for offences committed by an imposter, was released after Nigerians who witnessed the incident raised an uproar.
- Labour party said Obi could be implicated in a series of forbidden acts and even be framed.
- It also noted that it is not impossible that those urging him to leave Nigeria may have planted the impersonators.
The Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council has revealed that its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was harassed and detained by the United Kingdom (UK) immigration authorities at Heathrow Airport during the Easter break over offences believed to have been committed by an imposter.
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued by the Spokesman of the Campaign Council, Diran Onifade, on Wednesday, where he stated that Obi was detained for questioning on Good Friday, April 7, 2023, when he arrived at Heathrow Airport in London from Nigeria.
Onifade said that the LP Presidential Candidate who is just back from London, where he celebrated Easter, was saved by the spontaneous reaction of Nigerians at Heathrow Airport who witnessed the incident.
Peter Obi was questioned for a long time
The LP Presidential Campaign Spokesman said Obi arrived the Heathrow Airport in London from Nigeria on Good Friday, April 7, 2023, and joined the queue for the necessary airport protocols when he was accosted by immigration official who handed him a detention note and told him to step aside.
The statement partly reads,
- “The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi just back from London, United Kingdom where he celebrated Easter, has confirmed that he was harassed by London immigration officials and placed in detention but for the spontaneous reaction of Nigerians at Heathrow Airport.
- “Obi-Datti Media office can confirm that the LP Presidential candidate in the February 25 Presidential poll arrived at the Heathrow Airport in London from Nigeria on Good Friday, April 7, 2023, and joined the queue for the necessary Airport protocols when he was accosted by immigration official who handed him a detention note and told him to step aside. He was questioned for a long time and it was very strange for a man who lived for over a decade in that country.
- “Since Obi’s face was already an international frame, especially for Nigerians, Africans home, and in Diaspora who are likely to be Obidients, the people quickly raised their voices wondering why he was being delayed.
- “The immigration officials who were also taken aback at the reaction of the people were forced to reveal that Obi was being questioned for a duplication offense meaning that someone has been impersonating him in London.
Obi could be implicated and framed
- Onifade said, “The high implication of the offense is that the impersonator could be committing all kinds of weighty crimes and other dubious acts and it would be recorded in Obi’s name.
- “Since the impersonator is still at large, the scenario is unimaginable as Obi could be implicated in a series of forbidden acts and even be framed in a manner that could be a huge embarrassment to him, his family, his party, the obidient Movement, and indeed Nigeria, where he currently and indisputably remains the conscience of the people.
- “Obi-Datti Media office recalls that our principal has been under all kinds of attack, since the February 25th, 2023 Presidential election in which as the standard bearer of the Labour Party, he put up an outstanding showing coming third out of 18 contestants as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, even though his supporters and many other election watchers including international observers believe very strongly that he won the election but was manipulated out.
- “Since he was told to go to court if he feels strongly about the election which all international monitors chorused were flawed and full of imperfections and he accepted, there have been severe attacks on him from all corners.
Impersonators may have been planted by opposition
- He also added, “Even Federal Government who directed him to go to court even despatched the Minister of Information Lai Mohammad to the United States to attempt at de-marketing him and accused him of treason.
- “Obi’s telephone line was also bugged when they were possibly looking for information to portray him badly before a section of the country who had voted for him massively.
- “As if they were not getting the desired results of denting his image, and possibly placing the traducers under a heavier conscience load, they tried to persuade him to leave the country and go take a rest.
- “It’s also not impossible that those urging him to leave the country may have planted the impersonators ostensibly to tar the Eagle’s immaculate appearance.
- “The Obi-Datti Media office will like to therefore assure all persons of goodwill especially the Obidients that the rock is not deterred as he is ready to suffer the pain and remain even more determined to pursue whichever path his creator destined for him in Nigeria.
- “Meanwhile, the former Anambra state Governor is back in the country and has continued his charity work visiting health and educational institutions, making donations, and bagging awards.’’
No matter how you see it and/or frame it, both the Nigerian and British authorities knows the sources of this incident which must be presented to both Nigerian and
British citizens to see themselves. First, if the Nigerian Govt. does not know what happened, what did they do or did not do when this was unfolding?? Ironically, one may also ask when the British GOVT. became aware of this since the flight manifesto ticket(s) was shared with the port of departure and arrivals. This is an international horror movie that the public must be allowed to know. This is terrible as the world order has become thermodynamically very unstable and dangerous.