Peter Obi reportedly detained in London for alleged impersonation issues

Reports have emerged that the Labour Party (LP) candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi was recently arrested and detained by British Immigration officers at the Heathrow Airport, London, over a case of mistaken identity.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor of Paul University, Awka, Anambra State, Prof. Chinyere Okunna, who is a close confidant of Obi revealed the former governor’s ordeal.

According to Okunna, Obi was detained and interrogated for several hours after the British Airways plane he flew on landed at the Heathrow Airport on April 7, 2023.

Okunna, a Professor of Mass Communication who at various times served as Obi’s Commissioner for Information, Economic Planning and Coordinating Commissioner for Development Partners, on Wednesday, said the arrest and detention of Obi was said to be over probes relating to someone impersonating Obi with a duplicated identity in the UK.

Giving an insight on how Obi was arrested on Wednesday in a post on her Facebook page, Prof. Okunna said the LP presidential candidate narrated his ordeal to her in private, and expressed the pains he has had to go through as he is being hounded by powerful people who are bent on chasing him out of the country.

In the narrative, Okunna said:
“I suppose he told me all this confidentially. My very sincere apologies, Your Excellency, for ‘breaking’ this confidentiality, but History beckons and I CANNOT KEEP QUIET.

“Obi spoke to me at the Official Opening of the Specialist Hospital of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters, Nkpor on Tuesday. He had arrived at the event after flying in from London.

“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.

“He arrived at Heathrow Airport and joined the usual queue to pass through Immigration, and that was when his ordeal began.

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“He was stopped and questioned for a long time and subsequently handed a detention note and told to wait for further interrogation and investigation.

“This was terribly unusual for a man who had lived honourably in the UK for a long time.

“In the face of this harassment, some well-meaning Nigerians, knowing who he is, raised their voices in protest, demanding to know why he was being treated that way.

“The shocking revelation by the Immigration Officer was that his (Obi’s) identity “was duplicated”. This revelation has definitely set off alarm bells.

“For people who are knowledgeable about such matters, this is a very dangerous development because the implication is that someone is impersonating Peter Obi.

“And that someone could implicate Obi in all manner of dubious and even criminal activities, and rope him into any number of offences; he could get Obi framed for one criminal act or another. The frightening scenario of what can happen, is unimaginable!!!

“This is the height of it all for a man who has been under sundry intimidation and emotional torture: Bugging of his phone and those of his wife and children; keeping him constantly under surveillance; calling him names; putting him under severe pressure to leave (run away from) the country; wrongly accusing him of negative things he knows absolutely nothing about etc.

“As he was telling me his ‘Heathrow tale of woe’ at Nkpor today, I could see a man who was in severe pain and under unbearable stress, who many would expect to be at the point of despair.

“But, as he confirmed, he is ready to suffer this pain and is as determined as ever to pursue the path which he has chosen to enable him arrive at the destination which well-meaning people in Nigeria and far far beyond are expecting him to arrive at.”

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