Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has described the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, as a “clown” for ordering the State Security Service (SSS) to detain him in Anambra State.
During the Anambra governorship election in November 2013, El-Rufai was detained by SSS officials at a hotel where he had lodged in Awka, the state capital.
Confirming the incident to NAN at the time, the SSS director in Anambra at the time, A.U. Okeiyi claimed that el-Rufai was being protected for his safety.
“El-Rufai is not an ordinary person. If anything happens to him, they will blame the security,” A.U. Okeiyi was quoted as saying.
However, El-Rufai had sued the SSS over the development, and in September 2014, a federal high court in Awka awarded him N2 million in damages for unlawful detention and ordered the security agency to apologize to him.
Speaking at an event for presidential candidates organized by the Arewa joint committee on Monday, October 17, 2022, El-Rufai accused Obi of ordering his arrest and detention.
The governor explained that as an official of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the time, he had gone to Anambra to monitor the governorship election in the state.
El-Rufai said, “In 2013, I went to Anambra state, as an official of the APC, to witness the bye-election for governorship.
“Your next guest, Peter Obi, was governor. He got me arrested and detained for 48 hours in my hotel room. Now, I am the governor of Kaduna state. And he is coming to Kaduna.
“In addition to the police and the SSS, I have one mechanised division Nigerian Army here, if I need to arrest and detain anyone. But we are northerners. We are civilised. We don’t do things like that.”
Reacting to El-Rufai’s comment, a Twitter influencer, Adetutu Balogun, shared a video showing of the governor who was APC deputy national secretary at the time, speaking on the incident.
In the video interview with TV360, El-Rufai had said three SSS officials “holding AK-47” told him they had “directives from Abuja” to restrict him to his room.
Commenting on the video, Balogun said, “@elrufai is a compulsive liar… this is the video of him saying that he was arrested by SSS based on an order from Abuja, yet he lied in Arewa house that @PeterObi arrested him in Anambra State. That is why his hands can’t reach his feet to tie his shoelaces.”
Responding to the tweet, El-Rufai said he has video evidence of Obi “revealing” that he was behind his detention. He said Obi is a “clown” who did not know which state he hails from back in 2013.
“Yes but your little god Peter Obi later revealed on national TV – we have the video clip – that he got the unlawful detention effected, and said I had no right to be in Anambra State since it was not Katsina State. The clown didn’t even know that I am from Kaduna State!” El-Rufai tweeted.
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