Posted by Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra, is accused of ordering security personnel to detain Nasir El-Rufai in 2013. El-Rufai is the governor of Kaduna State.
At a gathering for presidential candidates hosted by the Arewa joint committee on Monday, El-Rufai made the accusation.
He said that at the time, while serving as an APC official, he had been to Anambra to observe the state’s governorship election.
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.
Obi passed over to Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in March 2014 after the election.
El-Rufai was held by members of the state security agency (SSS) during the election in November 2013 at a hotel where he had stayed in Awka, the state capital.
At the time, the SSS had confirmed the incident to NAN and stated that el-Rufai was being guarded for his protection.
“El-Rufai is not a typical individual. They will blame the security if anything happens to him, according to A.U. Okeiyi, the SSS director in Anambra at the time.
However, el-Rufai had sued the SSS over the development, and in September 2014, a federal high court in Awka ordered the security agency to apologise to him.
He was also given N2 million in damages by the court for unjustified imprisonment.
El-Rufai claimed in a speech on Monday that Obi, who is currently the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate, ordered his detention.
As an APC official, I traveled to Anambra state in 2013 to observe the governorship bye-election, he claimed.
Peter Obi, your following guest, was the governor. He had me taken into custody and held in my hotel room for 48 hours. I currently serve as Kaduna state’s governor. And he’s headed towards Kaduna.
“I have one mechanized division of the Nigerian Army here, in addition to the police and the SSS, in case I need to hold and/or arrest anyone. But we come from the north. We are civilized. We don’t act in such a way.