The presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi was last Friday detained for hours at Heathrow Airport in London by immigration officials.
Peter Obi was detained and interrogated over alleged impersonation.
The LP candidate’s associate and Mass
Communication scholar, Prof Chinyere Stella Okunna disclosed this in a Facebook post late Tuesday night.
Okunna, who worked as commissioner when Obi was Anambra governor, said that the former governor was informed by UK Immigration officials during interrogation that his “identity was duplicated”.
Okunna, who is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor of Paul University, Awka, said that Obi informed her of his UK ordeal in confidence but she had to share it with the public for the sake of posterity.
“Today 11/04/2023, I was shocked beyond words to hear from His Excellency Mr Peter what he went through when his British Airways plane landed at Heathrow Airport London in the early morning of Friday
07/04/2023,” she said.
Okunna continued, “He was talking to me at the Official Opening of the Specialist Hospital of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters, Nkpor.
He had arrived at the event after flying in from London, his presence heralded by the usual ‘ear-splitting’ ovation that accompanies him everywhere nowadays.
As the “Most Outstanding Pillar of the Foundation/Hospital”, the Reverend Sisters were full of expectations that he would attend; so were we (Members of the Governing Board of the IHM Sisters Healthcare System), although there was also anxiety about whether he would be able to make it, being outside Nigeria.
“I actually had no idea he had travelled out of the country until the ovation over his presence in a London Church went viral on the Internet.
I would never have imagined he would be able to go anywhere so soon after his energy-sapping marathon visits on 06/04 to Paul University, Regina Caeli Hospital and other health facilities where he went about touching lives in his usual quiet philanthropic manner.