El-Rufai calls Peter Obi “clown” over 2013 detention incident

Adeleye Kunle Reports

The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai says the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi is a “clown” who did not know which state he hails from back in 2013.

El-Rufai said this in a tweet on Monday during a war of words with a Twitter influencer.

The matter first resurfaced today when the governor addressed the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna.

The LP presidential candidate was in the state to honour an invitation by the committee to speak on his plans for the region and the country.

El-Rufai narrated how Obi as Anambra governor ordered his arrest and detention in a hotel for 48 hours when he was in the state as an official of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to monitor the governorship election there.

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

“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,” El-Rufai said.

However, a Twitter influencer, Adetutu Balogun shared a video in which El-Rufai stated that it was the State Security Service (SSS) that arrested and detained him based on orders from Abuja.

Commeting on the video, Ms Balogun said, “@elrufai is a compulsive liar… this is the video of him saying that he was arrested by SSS based on an order from Abuja, yet he lied in Arewa house that @PeterObi arrested him in Anambra State. That is why his hands can’t reach his feet to tie his shoelaces.”

Reacting to the influencer’s comment, El-Rufai said, “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!”

See tweets: