THE presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, spoke on his encounter with the UK immigration operatives on April 7th at the Heathrow Airport in London, debunking the story that he was arrested and detained for hours before being deported, was far from the truth.
It was the first time Obi, who appeared as a guest on Prime Time, a current affairs programme on Arise Television, would personally address the issue since the story, which broke about a fortnight ago went viral.
He told his host that the encounter did not even last more than 20 minutes and that he was even escorted through the Very Important Personality (VIP) lounge by the same immigration personnel, who had earlier revealed to him that the issue was all about someone impersonating him.
Hear him: “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. All these lasted for a maximum of 20 minutes. I was treated with all due respect. I lived in the UK from 1993 to 2005. Not only that I lived there, from that period to now is a period of 30 years, I’ve never been questioned, arrested, detained in any country in the world. I’ve never for any reason found myself in any manner being questioned for any offence.
“I never committed any offence and it lasted for less than 20 minutes and I was given all the due respect by the border personnel who told me, your identity is duplicated, be careful and actually had to walk me through to the VIP process and every other thing. I have a written document by the British government clarifying that I was never detained. It was just a few minute routine check.
“It was actually Nigerians who were queuing up because I arrived on British Airways. They were even worried that they asked me a question for just a few minutes. But today it is being dramatised and everything. People are saying I was detained that I committed an offence or that I even committed several offences, his company was closed, he wasn’t paying tax. For the years I lived in Britain, I’ve never been questioned. My taxes were duly paid. In fact most times, they had refunded me money for overpayment. I had borrowed money from their system and I’d done everything globally and not one day had I defaulted in anything. If you find one default, it is not Peter.”
