TheCable

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has denied issuing the order for Nasir el-Rufai to be detained during the Anambra governorship election in 2013.

On Monday, in his remarks at an event organised for presidential candidates by the Arewa joint committee, el-Rufai said as an official of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he had gone to Anambra to monitor the 2013 governorship election.

He, however, alleged that he was detained in his hotel room on the order of Obi, who was Anambra governor at the time.

Responding to the Kaduna governor’s claim at the event, the LP candidate said he was not behind the directive for el-Rufai’s detention, adding that he was also detained in his LGA.

“When I came in now, somebody told me that my brother, the governor of Kaduna state, said that he came to my state and I detained him. Let me tell you, it is good when these things happen, you clarify them,” he said.

“Number one, in my eight years of being governor, only in the first three months did I have a commissioner that is not from the north — commissioner of police. And that’s because I met the person.

“At the time the governor said this, it was during election. The police commissioner that was there then was from Adamawa — CP Gwari from Adamawa. The AIG that supervised that election was CP Nasarawa from the north. The DIG that came for that election was from Kano.

“Tell me my power, that I was in APGA — government was PDP and APC. Tell me how APGA person will issue order for somebody to be detained. Even me was detained in my local government.

“However, the only offence I committed is that when they asked me, I said ‘that’s how they treat everybody; that I wouldn’t be in Kaduna on the day of election’. That was the only thing.

“There is no way. I cannot do that. As governor of Anambra state, I had the best ADC in Nigeria — the best policeman. My ADC, Mohammed, is from Kano. He’s the best policeman that I have ever met. Who will I give the order? How will I tell who lives in my house every day; I’m close to his family; I get up and say ‘Mohammed, I want to deal with your people’, and he will stay there.

“Call my ADC today. I will give you his phone number. He’s the best policeman. He’s a CSP now. So, when people say Peter Obi is black. 2019, I was [vice-presidential candidate], I was a good man. Now that I want to be president, I’ve become a bad man. I did not do anything wrong. I want to change Nigeria.”