The leadership of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has condemned an alleged plot to implicate the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in criminal acts in the United Kingdom.
Bellnewsonline.com reports that this is coming after the detention of the former Anambra State Governor by UK immigration officials over crimes committed by an impostor.
Speaking about Peter Obi’s embarrassing detention last week Friday, the Acting President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Damian Okeke Ogene, said it was a ploy to silence Peter Obi.
Ogene told Bellnewsonline.com that the incident is a ploy to scuttle the moves by Obi and his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed to recover their mandate stolen from them at the February 25 general election.
Okeke said: “They are at it again, and they are planning more to frustrate the voices of the Nigerian populace who were denied their constitutional right to choose their leaders.
“The first one was when Lai Mohammed accused Obi and Datti of treason, but that one was dead on arrival, and this time, they have planted some people to impersonate Obi so that if a crime is committed, they would hold him responsible.
“We want to make it public that we know their antics, and the Nigerian people know exactly what they are planning, but they will not succeed.”
Also speaking, a former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, urged UK authorities not to allow themselves to be used as instruments to threaten the old relationship between their country and Nigeria.
He said: “The government of the United Kingdom cannot claim that they don’t know the Peter Obi who has been with them for more than two decades now for them to begin to suspect him.
“Again, since it is a case of impersonation, the UK government should rise to the occasion by fishing out those involved in that impersonation plot and make them public.
“If this is not done as quickly as possible, the government of the United Kingdom owes us and Peter Obi an apology for this embarrassment because those executing this plot would end up tampering with the age-long bilateral relationship between UK and Nigeria.”