By Emma Emerzor
Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi has said the allegation that he once arrested and detained Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai while he was governor of Anambra State was untrue .
Obi was reacting to claims credited to the Kaduna State governor that he ordered the police to arrest and detain him for 48 hours during a visit to Anambra State as a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2013. Obi was at the time the governor of the state under the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) party.
Refuting El-Rufai’s arrest claim, he said: “There’s no way, I cannot do that. I never ordered any AIG to arrest or detain anybody. I had the best ADC, the best policeman in Nigeria. He is from Kano. The police commissioner that was there then was from Adamawa.
“The AIG in that election was from Nasarawa, strictly Nasarawa from the North. Tell me how I will use my power to issue order for somebody to be detained. There is no way I can do that, I didn’t ask anyone to do that, as governor of Anambra State.”
El-Rufai made the allegation at an interactive session of Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna on Monday, saying he had all the security architecture at his disposal now that the Labour Party candidate was in his domain to retaliate, but won’t.
“ But we are northerners, we are civilised. We don’t do things like that. I wish you all safe journey back to your destinations,” he said.
Meanwhile, Obi has reiterated his readiness to bring peace to Nigeria and quicken the development of every part of the country.
Obi stated this in an interruption with Northern Elders’ Forum at Arewa House, Kaduna, yesterday.
While answering questions on why he is yet to condemn the Monday sit-at-home in the East, Obi said he would continued to condemn wrong doings in any part of the country and that he would not condone vices in any guise.
He said the overriding interest of the Obi-Datti Presidency was to make Nigeria a better country, restore security and secure the future of the country through massive support for education.
The former Anambra State governor, however, said his tactics of fighting agitators would be different.
He said he would prefer to consult, discuss and dialogue with them and find out the substance of their agitations.
Obi said even the most intractable problems in the world had been solved through dialogue and that he would only consider other options after he had exhausted reason.
Also, the media office of Peter Obi has clarified the statement on Eastern Security Network (ESN), saying their principal was actually commenting on Ebubeagu Security Network formed by the governors of the South-East to tackle rising insecurity in the region.