Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) at the just-concluded general elections, was last Friday detained in London by UK immigration officials.
A famous Mass Communications scholar, and Deputy Vice Chancellor of Paul University Awka, who is also a confidant of Obi, Prof Chinyere Okunna, revealed this on Wednesday morning.
Obi was said to have been detained for hours, and interrogated by the officials, after his British Airways plane landed in Heathrow Airport on Friday morning.
Okunna, who worked with Obi as commissioner for information, commissioner for economic planning and coordinating commissioner for development partners said Obi who lived honourably in the UK narrated the ordeal to her in private, and expressed pain about his ordeal, and others, which is meant to hound and chase him out of Nigeria.
Okunna said: “I suppose he told me all this confidentially. My very sincere apologies, Your Excellency, for ‘breaking’ this confidentiality, but History beckons and I CANNOT KEEP QUIET.
“Obi spoke to me at the Official Opening of the Specialist Hospital of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters, Nkpor (on Tuesday). He had arrived at the event after flying in from London.
“I actually had no idea he had travelled out of the country, until the ovation over his presence in a London Church went viral on the Internet.
“He arrived at Heathrow Airport and joined the usual queue to pass through Immigration, and that was when his ordeal began.
“He was stopped and questioned for a long time and subsequently handed a detention note and told to wait for further interrogation and investigation.
“This was terribly unusual for a man who had lived honourably in the UK for a long time.
“In the face of this harassment, some well-meaning Nigerians, knowing who he is, raised their voices in protest, demanding to know why he was being treated that way.”
Okunna revealed that in the face of seeming protest by some Nigerians, the immigration officials revealed that someone was impersonating Obi in the country.
“The shocking revelation by the Immigration Officer was that his (Obi’s) identity ‘was duplicated’. This revelation has definitely set off alarm bells.
“For people who are knowledgeable about such matters, this is a very dangerous development because the implication is that someone is impersonating Peter Obi.
“And that someone could implicate Obi in all manner of dubious and even criminal activities, and rope him into any number of offences; he could get Obi framed for one criminal act or another. The frightening scenario of what can happen is unimaginable!!!
“This is the height of it all for a man who has been under sundry intimidation and emotional torture: Bugging of his phone and those of his wife and children; keeping him constantly under surveillance; calling him names; putting him under severe pressure to leave (run away from) the country; wrongly accusing him of negative things he knows absolutely nothing about, etc.
“As he was telling me his ‘Heathrow tale of woe’ at Nkpor today, I could see a man who was in severe pain and under unbearable stress, who many would expect to be at the point of despair.
“But, as he confirmed, he is ready to suffer this pain and is as determined as ever to pursue the path which he has chosen to enable him arrive at the destination which well-meaning people in Nigeria and far far beyond are expecting him to arrive at.”
See Reactions
Don Clinton wrote, ‘‘We sincerely apologize to the general public for this very act of nuisance. The poster is one of our psychiatric patients who escaped last night. We urge the public to go about your various business as everything is under control. Thanks for your understanding…God bless you.”
Sun wrote, ”I love the part of the report that described how Nigeria at the airport raised their voices and voiced their concerns. Nobody did so for Ekweremadu. The love is overwhelming.”
Mac Tony wrote, ”Everything travail he is experiencing will be for the good of Nigeria and Nigerians. Peter Obi will succeed. UK immigration will now see reasons to track his impersonators and bring them to book. Peter Obi’s journey will be turbulent but he will surely get to his destination Amen.”
Dsupremo1 wrote, ”When the hand of GOD is rested on a Man’s shoulder the message is as good as saying no weapon formed against him shall prosper, yes they will arise but He shall overcome them all.”
Moses Okoye wrote, ‘‘How many times has Tinubu with his money laundering and drug cases questioned in the UK?this is a pointer to we Nigerians that the British government is part of Nigeria’s problems.they always turn blind eyes on the atrocities being committed in Nigeria for your own selfish gains.”
