The Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Office has revealed how the Labour Party’s (LP) Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi, was harassed by immigration officers at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom.
Diran Onifade, spokesman for the Campaign Council, said in a statement on Wednesday that the former Anambra State governor was detained and questioned for a duplication offence, implying that someone was impersonating Obi in London.
According to Mr. Onifade, the LP’s Presidential Candidate, who has just returned from London, where he celebrated Easter, the spontaneous reaction of Nigerians at Heathrow Airport saved him.
Onifade 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.
“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,” Onifade narrated.
He further recounted that the immigration officials who were also taken aback at the reaction of the people were forced to reveal to those present Obi was being questioned.
Onifade asserted that 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,” the LP Campaign Office spokesman stressed.
The Obi-Datti Media office said its principal has been under all kinds of attack, since the February 25th, 2023 Presidential election in which he came third out of 18 contestants as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, even though its “supporters and many other election watchers including international observers believe very strongly that he won the election but was manipulated out”.
The campaign office further stated that Since Obi was told to go to court if he feels strongly about the election, there have been severe attacks on him from all corners.
“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,” the media office statement partly read.
In buttressing his point, the Campaign Office spokesman, Mr Onifade, stated that Nigerians must know that in the face of the flurry of unwarranted attacks and cogs being placed in the wheel of rescuing the nation, Obi strongly believes that a new Nigeria is possible where the people will be able to live in a secure and productive country they will all be proud to own.
He added that in the meantime, Peter Obi is back in the country and has continued his charity work visiting health and educational institutions making donations, and bagging awards.