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Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party was reportedly harassed and detained by immigration officers at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom.
The spokesman for the party’s Campaign Council, Diran Onifade made this known on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, in a statement.
Onifade said the former governor of Anambra was detained and questioned for a duplication offence suggesting that someone must have been impersonating him in London.
The immigration officials were said to have accosted Obi when he arrived the Heathrow Airport in London from Nigeria on Good Friday, April 7, 2023.
While on the queue for the necessary airport protocols, the officials 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,” Onifade said.
He added that, “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 immigration officials who were also taken aback at the reaction of the people were forced to reveal that Obi was being questioned for a ‘DUPLICATION offense’ meaning that someone has been impersonating him in London.
“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,” Onifade said.
Recall that last week, the federal government accused Obi and his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed of treason for allegedly inciting people to violence following the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
Obi, who came third in the election has gone to court to challenge the victory of the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu.