Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has labelled Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna a liar, following some allegations the latter made against the LP flag-bearer.
The Quest Times reports that Gov El-Rufai on Monday, October 17, 2022, accused Obi of arresting him when he was the then Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said, “In 2013 I went to Anambra State as an official of the APC to witness the by-election for Governorship. Your next guest Peter Obi was governor, he got me arrested and detained for 48 hours in my hotel room.
“Now I am the Governor of Kaduna State and he’s coming to Kaduna.
“In addition to the Police and SSS, I have 1 Mechanized Division Nigerian Army here if I need to arrest and detain anyone.
“But we are northerners, we don’t do things like that,” he said.
Reacting to El-Rufai’s allegation, Peter Obi described it as untrue, stating that he couldn’t have ordered the DSS to arrest him.
According to Obi, he was a member of the the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and couldn’t order the PDP-controlled government to arrest anybody.
He 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.
“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,” Mr Obi said.