How Peter Obi spent Easter in detention in London

Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was last week detained in London by the United Kingdom immigration officials for alleged impersonation.

This was made known in a statement issued Wednesday by the Head, Obi-Datti Media, Diran Onifade.

Mr Onifade however said Peter Obi has since returned to Nigeria.

“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 officials who handed him a detention note and told him to step aside,” Mr Onifade said.

According to the statement, Peter Obi was harassed by London immigration officials and placed in detention where he spent the Easter holidays.

“He was questioned for a long time and it was very strange for a man who lived for over a decade in that country,” the statement said.

Possible implication for Peter Obi

Mr Onifade explained that 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.

He emphasised that since the impersonator is still at large, 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 Onifade also reiterated that Mr Obi has 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,” he added.

Possible plot against Peter Obi by government?

Mr Onifade noted that 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,” the statement said.

Mr Onifade accused the 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,” he said, adding that 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.

When contacted on phone, Mr Onifade said, “He experienced a delay at the airport because someone duplicated his details. But he has since returned to the country.”

Existing scourge

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.

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.

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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.