Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
The Campaign for Democracy South-East (CD) and the Human Rights Liberty Access and Peace Defenders’ Foundation (HURIDE) say time has come for the British government to leave Nigeria alone to mind her business.
The group was speaking over what played out in the reported arrest and detention of Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Candidate at Heathrow Airport, London.
The groups in a statement over the weekend in Abuja said the latest development has confirmed British Government’s conspiracy to continue to sustain bad, obnoxious and corrupt leadership in Nigeria.
In the statement endorsed by the South-East chairman of the Campaign for Democracy (CD); and the Executive Director of HURIDE, the rights groups queried how anybody can impersonate Obi in a sophisticated society like Britain where technology is top-notch.
They said Obi had lived in Great Britain for almost 20 years, was a Governor of Anambra State in Nigeria and he is the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party that contested the 2023 Presidential election.
In the context, the groups said, during the campaigns Obi appeared virtually in all the major British media and at Chatham House in London, asking how any British security personnel could pretend not to know the identity of Obi.
“We are tempted to believe that Britain is playing out a script jointly with the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Government of Nigeria that manipulated the just concluded 2023 Presidential election to embarrass and muzzle Obi who is in Court to retrieve his mandate. It is unfortunate.”
“It is time for British Government to leave Nigeria alone. They have been part of Nigeria’s problem since the colonial era, undermining its attempt to have honest and good leadership,” said the rights groups.
They however asked the British Government to apologise to LP Candidate as well as discipline its immigration officials and others behind the detention.
