Kaduna State Governor used the occasion of the visit of the Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi to narrate how Obi, as Anambra State Governor, detained him in 2013.
This was even as Peter Obi quickly responded by saying that he never arrested and detained Governor Nasir El-Rufai in Anambra state while he was the Governor of the state.
Obi said he never ordered the Assistant Inspector General of Police to detain him nor anyone.
“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.”
Governor El-Rufai had said that Obi arrested him in Anambra state when he (Obi) was the Governor of the state in 2013.
El-Rufai, who spoke at an interactive session of Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna yesterday, October 17, insisted that Obi arrested and detained him for 48 hours.
According to him, the Labour Party presidential candidate was seeking a second term in office on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) at the time.
El-Rufai alleged that he (El-Rufai) was accredited by the APC to monitor the state’s governorship bye-election in Anambra at the time.
The Governor said that now, he has all the security architecture at his disposal now that Obi is coming into his domain.
“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, as Governor, got me arrested and detained for 48 hours in my hotel room.
“Now I’m the Governor of Kaduna State and he’s coming to Kaduna.
“In addition to the police and the State Secret Service, I have one Mechanised Division of the 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.
“I wish you all safe journey back to your destinations.”
