SaharaReporters had on Monday reported that El-Rufai boasted while speaking at an interactive session organised by the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna on Monday, that he was able to arrest Obi as a payback but he would not do so.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has reacted to the allegations by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who accused Obi of being responsible for his (El-Rufai’s) arrest in Anambra State in 2013.
SaharaReporters had on Monday reported that El-Rufai boasted while speaking at an interactive session organised by the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna on Monday, that he was able to arrest Obi as a payback but he would not do so.
El-Rufai had claimed that he was detained in Anambra State for 48 hours on the orders of Obi who was the state governor then.
The governor had said, “In 2013, I went to Anambra State as an official of the APC to witness the bye-election for governorship. Your next guest, Peter Obi, as governor, got me arrested and detained for 48 hours in my hotel room.”
The incumbent Kaduna governor boasted that while Obi was in Kaduna for the Arewa Joint Committee interactive session, he had all the security power to retaliate and deal with him (Obi) but he would not do so as Northerners were not known for reprisal.
Reacting to El-Rufai’s allegation, Obi said that the Kaduna Governor's claim was an unguided reckless speech and the utterance ought not to have been made carelessly, hence, he can only pray for El-Rufai and his likes.
Premium Times quoted Obi as saying, “What His Excellency, Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai said about me has been brought to my attention. I believe that as we grow older and are saddled with more responsibilities, we are expected to become circumspect in our thinking and avoid recklessness in our speeches and utterances.
“How does the circumstance he referred to relate to bigotry, to warrant such a label? All I do for people like El-Rufai is to pray for them and encourage them to concentrate on doing those things that will better the lots of Nigerians rather than engage in hate speeches that will divide and destroy the country.”
According to the former Anambra State Governor, he was also detained in his own village.
He added that it was impossible for him at the time to order agents of the State Security Service (SSS) from Abuja to arrest El-Rufai.
He noted, according to Premium Times, that “The police commissioner that was there then was from Adamawa State, and the AIG was from Nasarawa. The GMD that was planning for that election was from Kano. There’s no way I could have done that.
“My chairman, I never asked anyone to arrest you. As Governor of Anambra State, I have the first APC best policeman in Nigeria, and he is from Kano, so where will I give the order and tell a man who lives in my house every day that I want to deal with his people, and he will say yes?
“I was in APGA during the elections in 2010 (2013), the ruling party was PDP, how can I instruct the PDP in Abuja to detain anybody, even me as state governor was detained in my own local government.”