Heathrow Airport: FG Accused Of Complicity In Obi’s Detention

    Labour Party  Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi

( https://muckrack.com/kingsley-benneth/articles )

 

The Federal Government has been ac­cused of complicity in the detention of Labour Party’s (LP) presidential can­didate, Peter Obi, on April 7, at Heath­row Airport in the United Kingdom.

The government, it was alleged, dispatched the Minister of Informa­tion and Culture, Lai Mohammed, to Europe to malign the former Anambra State gover­nor, over alleged treason. ­

The Labour Party, last week, alleged that Obi was singled out from a queue and detained for hours by UK immigration of­ficers over alleged imperson­ation.

Sunny Anyanwu, a lawyer, told Daily Independent that the detention was politically moti­vated, noting that “Peter Obi has been living in the UK and he is a British citizen.

“Of course, the UK has his data, even to his finger print and blood group. So, there’s no way that they can accuse somebody like that who is not just their cit­izen, but a high profile personal­ity, a former governor in Nigeria and a frontrunner presidential candidate of impersonation.”

He also alleged that while the British government may not be totally involved in the crisis “a section of the UK government where we (Federal Govern­ment) could spend millions of Pounds on is involved”.

Anyanwu, while calling on 10 Downing Street to set up an inquiry to fish out those behind the saga, urged the LP presiden­tial candidate to “immediately sue the UK government for damages”.

He alleged that the APC was rattled by the petition filed by Obi, adding that “the document is loaded and they don’t see a way out of it. They are looking for every way to bring the man down”.

Obi, according to the Labour Party’s media team, was on his way to spend the Easter holiday with his family in London.

Head of Media, Diran On­ifade, in a statement, said that the former Anambra State governor was harassed by Lon­don immigration officials and placed on detention.

The statement disclosed 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.”

Public Affairs Analyst and Life Coach, Oseloka Zikora, re­gretted that “the immigration in the UK has up till now not released a statement as to why they did so or what happened. Or tender an apology. Because that is what should happen.

“If a British high ranking person was so embarrassed in Nigeria, I would have expected that the British government would have written to Nigeria to explain the circumstances concerning such an embar­rassment.

“Which unfortunately is not the case with Peter Obi. So, it is really very amazing and it be­clouds reason why Britain has kept quiet over this matter”.

Zikora insisted that the UK authorities owe Nigerians and the world an explanation of what happened at Heathrow Airport, as he stressed that the British government must dis­close reasons behind singling Obi out in the queue.

He further condemned the Federal Government’s silence on the issue, describing it as “ominous”.

“The fact that just before this incident the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, was in the US and accused Peter Obi of engaging in treasonable actions was very unfortunate.”

He criticized Mohammed’s action, as he reminded him that he was a serving government of­ficial and not the spokesman of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).

“He is a minister serving the people of Nigeria, and a minis­ter under the constitution of Nigeria.

“So, he has no business com­menting on issues concerning the elections. He could have stopped at saying well, we have conducted the elections and people have the right to be ag­grieved.

“And if they are aggrieved, he is asking them to do the right thing by going through the legal system to pursue their grievanc­es and resolve the issues.

“He is not a spokesman of the APC. He got to the US and started getting involved in mat­ters that he has no business get­ting involved in”.

He stressed that “it was left for INEC to defend their actions and not the Minister, Lai Mo­hammed, to do so.

“It is also not funny that a young man that works at the presidency can tweet that the Chairperson of the Diaspora Commission intervened that Peter Obi should be released. And that is not true. The wom­an was not even in the US in the first place”.

Meanwhile the camp of Ati­ku Abubakar, the Peoples Demo­cratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, has called on Obi to drag the Federal Government to court over his detention in the UK.

Spokesman to the camp, Dan­iel Bwala, at the weekend urged Obi to compel the government to “smoke out” those using him for a smear campaign.

In a tweet, Bwala wondered why Obi would be arrested when the Nigerian Immigration had his biodata.

Bwala said, “One fact is clear, the impersonator was issued the passport by the Nigerian Immi­gration. They have his bio-data and details about him.

“Peter Obi should sue the Ni­gerian government in court and compel them to smoke the man out and whoever may be using him for the smear campaign.

“We are now waiting for US government to apologize to Tinubu for illegally collecting the forfeited dollars. Asiwaju fans oya start throwing the in­sults”, the tweet.

In a twist to the crisis, the government of the United King­dom has declined to provide suf­ficient details about Obi’s ordeal as requested.

In a response through the Home Office in Nigeria, the UK government said they do not comment on individual cases.