The media office of Mr Peter Obi, the defeated candidate in Nigeria’s Presidential election, has confirmed his detention in London during Easter for alleged impersonation.
He was reported to have been accosted by immigration officials at Heartrow Airport who handed him a detention note and told him to step aside.
The London immigration officials placed Mr Obi in detention where he spent the Easter holidays.
The Head of Obi-Datti Media, Mr Diran Onifade, released a statement on the matter on Wednesday, April 12, in Abuja but that the politician businessman who came third in the election had returned to Nigeria.
“The Labour Party (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 officials 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,” Mr Onifade explained in the statement.
“The high implication of the offence 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, he said that the “scenario is unimaginable as Peter 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 Obedient movement, and Nigeria, where he currently and remains the conscience of the people’’.
Mr Obi, who is currently in election petition tribunal to claim victory or cancel the election had been under all kinds of attack, since the presidential election in which he put up an outstanding showing coming third out of 18 contestants as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“…though his supporters and many other election watchers including international observers believed very strongly that he won the election but was manipulated out,” Mr Onifade added.
“Since Peter Obi was told to go to court since he feels unsatisfied with the election outcome, which all international monitors chorused was flawed and full of imperfections and he accepted, there have been severe attacks on him from all corners.
“Even the Federal Government who directed him to go to court even dispatched the Minister of Information Lai Mohammad to the United States to attempt at de-marketing him and accused him of treason,” Mr Onifade said in the statement.
He accused the Nigerian government of bugging Mr Obi’s phone while 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 is 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,” Mr Onifade said.
Mr Obi came third in the presidential election having scored a little above 6 million votes and also failed to achieve the mandatory 25 percent in 25 states as got just in 16 states.
Mr Bola Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner with 8.8 million votes as well as scoring 25 percent votes in 29 out of the 36 states.
Mr Atiku Abubakar of main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 6.8 million votes and also made 25 percent in 21 states.
Mr Obi had sent a petition to the Presidential Election Tribunal sitting at the Appeal Court alleging that he won the election and that Mr Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election because he was convicted for drug trafficking in USA in 1993.
He also alleged massive irregularities in the election but the electoral body had since filed a defence that the election was free, fair and credible and that Obi lost the election.
INEC said that LP of Peter Obi could not even produce a list of 41,000 polling agents to represent it in 176,000 polling units.
Peter Obi came third in the 25 February election but he, and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, who came second, are challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu of the ruling APC.
The LP presidential flag-bearer and supporters have come under attacks and criticisms for claiming he won the election without providing concrete evidence.
Early this month, the social media space, especially Twitter, was awash with controversy over a leaked telephone conversation (now dubbed “Yes Daddy”) between Mr Obi and the founder of Living Faith Church, David Oyedepo, a Bishop.
In the audio clip, Petee Obi was heard asking Mr Oyedepo to help spread his campaign message to Christians in the South-west and parts of North-central.
Ahead of the presidential election, critics of Mr Obi have accused him of playing politics of ethnicity and religion, which he lost but has challenged in court.
ALSO READ: Peter Obi speaks on treason allegation
Mr Obi denied playing politics of religion and ethnicity and asked his critics to provide evidence. The leaked file appears to have substantiated the position of the critics.
However, Peter Obi and his party’s Presidential Campaign Council described the leaked audio of the conversation between him and the cleric as ‘faked and doctored’ and that appropriate legal actions would be taken against Peoples Gazette, an online newspaper that first released the audio.
Within this period, the LP claimed Mr Obi has been under pressure to leave the country or face the prospect of being arrested on false charges of inciting insurrection in the country.
