“Abike Dabiri did not intervene in Obi’s UK ordeal” – NiDCOM denies claim made by Bashir Ahmad and Adamu Garba
The Federal Government of Nigeria has denied claims made by Bashir Ahmad and Adamu Garba that it intervened when Peter Obi was held up in an airport in London, United Kingdom last week.
The Nigerian government was dragged into the incident on Thursday, April 13, after an aide of President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, implied via a tweet that the Federal Government intervened to secure Obi’s release.
Ahmad wrote: “I heard Aunty @Abike Dabiri has done it for the Compatriot that needed her intervention in the UK. God bless you and the services you have been rendering for our countrymen and women, especially this recent one, ma’am!”
Also, former presidential aspirant of the APC, Adamu Garba, claimed via Twitter that the APC-led Federal Government facilitated Obi’s release from detention in the UK.
Garba claimed Obi’s release was facilitated by NiDCOM, headed by Abike Dabiri-Erewa.
Garba tweeted: “Here is how the government of APC helped to recover Obi from his detention cell in the UK over allegations of traveling to the UK with fake documents. All thanks to Abike Dabiri. His campaign fake, his manifesto fake, his motives fake, even his travel documents are fake. Why?”
However, NiDCOM has denied the reports that it intervened in the detention ordeal of Obi.
Spokesperson and head of Media, Public Relations and Protocol Unit of NiDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, disowned the viral photo shared by Garba, describing it as a stunt.
He said the NiDCOM boss, Dabiri-Erewa, was not in the UK and not in a position to secure the release of any Nigerian suspected to be under UK interrogation.
“Our attention has been called to the above social media stunt which has gone viral. Aunty Abike Dabiri-Erewa is not in UK and not in a position to secure the release of any Nigerian suspected to be under UK interrogation. So, members of the public should disregard the information in its entirety,” the NiDCOM spokesman stated.
Despite the clarification by NiDCOM, Ahmad and Garba’s tweets are still up.