The Federal Government of Nigeria has debunked the reports of facilitating the release of Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in the United Kingdom.
OsunDaily News reported that the former governor of Anambra state was last week Friday, detained at Hearthrow Airport in London in a case of mistaken identity during his trip to celebrate Easter in the UK.
A former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Adamu Garba, shared a photoshopped image showing the executive chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, seated in an office alongside Peter Obi and a UK law enforcement officer.
Adamu claimed that the APC-led government through Abike Dabiri facilitated the release of Peter Obi from detention.
He tweeted: “Here is how the government of APC helped to recover Peter Obi from his detention cell in the UK over allegations of traveling to the UK with fake documents. All thanks to Abike Dabiri.
“His campaign fake, manifesto fake, his motives fake, even his travel documents are fake. WHY?”
Similarly, an aide of President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, in a tweet on Thursday, also implied that the Federal Government intervened in Peter Obi’s ordeal to secure his release.
He wrote: “I heard Aunty @Abike Dabiri has done it for the Compatriot that needed her intervention in the UK. God bless you and the services you have been rendering for our countrymen and women, especially this recent one, ma’am!”
However, the spokesperson and head of the Media, Public Relations, and Protocol Unit of NiDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, has denied facilitating the release of Peter Obi, describing the viral photo as a media stunt.
He said the NiDCOM boss, Dabiri-Erewa, was not in the UK and not in a position to secure the release of any Nigerian suspected to be under UK interrogation.
He said: “Our attention has been called to the above social media stunt which has gone viral. Aunty Abike Dabiri-Erewa is NOT in UK and NOT in a position to secure the release of any Nigerian suspected to be under UK interrogation. So, members of the public should disregard the information in its entirety”
