The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi says he was never arrested by UK immigration officials.
In an interview with Arise TV on Monday, the former Anambra governor revealed what truly transpired at the Heathrow Airport.
On April 12, LP announced that Obi was harassed and detained at Heathrow Airport in London over alleged impersonation.
The party said Obi was questioned for a long time and that it took the intervention of Nigerians for him to be released.
He said: “I was never arrested, I was never detained. And I did not commit any offence. I was stopped for a routine immigration check because there appeared to be a duplication of my identity and all this lasted for a maximum of 20 minutes.
“I lived in the UK from 1993 until 2005. From then till now is a period of 30 years. I have never been questioned, arrested or detained in any country in the world. I have never for any reason found myself being questioned for any offence.
“It was a routine immigration check and I was actually given all the due respect by the border personality that interviewed me, who told me ‘your identity has been duplicated, be careful’.”
Obi noted that despite once having a permanent residency in the UK, he chose to return to Nigeria, adding that “I was born a Nigerian. I will want to live and die a Nigerian”.
The former Anambra governor also spoke on the accusation of treason levelled against him by Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture.
The minister had made the claim while addressing foreign media in Washington DC.
Obi described Mohammed’s action as the height of rascality adding that the trip was a waste of taxpayers’ money.
“I committed a treasonable offence and I am in Onitsha and my minister went to announce in Washington,” he said.
“The amount it cost Nigeria for him to go and announce that in Washington can build a block of six classrooms in a primary school.
“These are the reasons why we want a new Nigeria where things will work the way it works in other climes.”
Obi added that the minister could have invited him to defend the alleged act of treason.
On speaking to Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide aka Winners Chapel, where he was heard in a leaked audio saying the election is a religious war, Obi said the clip was doctored, adding that at no time did he ever say, think, or even imply that the 2023 election is, or was a religious war.
Obi admitted that he called the cleric to solicit votes.
“Call it whatever you want to call it. Whatever anyone wants to make of it. I am not a religious bigot. Do you think I can just pick a phone and say ‘religious war’? No, I was even begging the bishop to help me ask his people to vote, which was what I was doing for six months — begging,” Obi said.
“I wasn’t saying ‘catch him’, ‘kill him’, ‘force it’. I was even begging. That shows that I continued to look for votes by begging. There were so many things we tried to do but they were not okay.
“Let me tell you; those who have been trying to manipulate Nigerians have been doing it. But it is coming to an end. The people they have been manipulating are dying of hunger.
“They will soon know who is the religious or tribal bigot. I am not one. I have just given you an example of how I built mosques. Till today, no non-Muslim governor has sent more people to Mecca than me.
“I can never say election is a religious war. Because it is not. There was a conversation. But I never said it was a religious war. What for? I am surrounded by people.
“If there was ever an instance where the presidential candidate and his deputy work as brothers, it is me and Datti. And I know and we never stop talking about it.
“For the first time in the history of Nigeria, we have a presidential candidate, running mate and party chairman who were born after Nigeria’s independence.
“We must save this country and he (Datti) knows my commitment to it. I can’t do all these with the background of religious war.”
