The presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi was last Friday, allegedly delayed and questioned by some immigration officials in London, United Kingdom, according to one of the LP flagbearer’s former aides.
Obi was said to have been detained for hours, after his British Airways plane landed in Heathrow Airport on Friday morning, over a case of “duplicate identity.”
According to the aide, Prof Chinyere Okunna, a Mass Communications scholar, and Deputy Vice Chancellor of Paul University Awka, Obi’s ordeal was revealed in a post on Wednesday 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, “Today, 11/04/2023, I was shocked beyond words to hear from His Excellency Mr Peter what he went through when his British Airways plane landed at Heathrow Airport London in the early morning of Friday 07/04/2023.
“He was talking to me at the Official Opening of the Specialist Hospital of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters, Nkpor. He had arrived at the event after flying in from London, his presence heralded by the usual 'ear-splitting' ovation that accompanies him everywhere nowadays. As the "Most Outstanding Pillar of the Foundation/Hospital", the Reverend Sisters were full of expectations that he would attend; so were we (Members of the Governing Board of the IHM Sisters Healthcare System), although there was also anxiety about whether he would be able to make it, being outside Nigeria.
“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.
“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.”