Obi lambasts El-Rufai over detention comment
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has lampooned Governor Nasir El-Rufai following the latter’s accusation against him.
El-Rufai, at an event organized by Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna on Monday, said that Obi, as governor of Anambra state in 2013, ordered the Department of State Security to restrict him to his hotel room.
“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 Kaduna governor said.
El-Rufai said despite his having the security power to retaliate, he would not.
Responding to El-Rufai, Obi said, “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.”
Obi said it was impossible for him at the time to order agents of the State Security Service (SSS) from Abuja to arrest El-Rufai.
“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,” Obi said.
