How Obi ordered SSS to detain me during Anambra guber election in 2013 – El-Rufai

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, has alleged that Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra, ordered security operatives to detain him in 2013.

Speaking on Monday at an event for presidential candidates organised by the Arewa joint committee, el-Rufai said 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.

The Anambra governorship election, which started in November 2013, was completed in December 2013 after supplementary elections were held in areas where it did not earlier take place.

Following the election, Obi handed over to Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in March 2014.

During the election in November 2013, el-Rufai was detained by officials of the state security service (SSS) at a hotel where he had lodged in Awka, the state capital.

Confirming the incident to NAN at the time, the SSS had 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, SSS director in Anambra at the time, was quoted as saying.

However, el-Rufai had sued the SSS over the development, and in September 2014, a federal high court in Awka had ordered the security agency to apologise to him.

The court also awarded him N2 million in damages for unlawful detention.

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Speaking on Monday, el-Rufai said Obi, who is now presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), ordered his detention.

“In 2013, I went to Anambra state, as an official of the APC, to witness the bye-election for governorship,” he said.

“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 the Kaduna governor’s comment, a Twitter user, Adetutu Balogun, had shared a video showing el-Rufai, as 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.

Responding to the tweet, the Kaduna governor said he has video evidence of Obi “revealing” that he was behind his detention.

“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.