ONITSHA, Nigeria – The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has written a letter to the UK government, urging an investigation into the alleged assault, humiliation, and detention of Chief Peter Obi, a long-time UK resident and presumed winner of Nigeria’s February 2023 Presidential Election, by Heathrow Airport immigration officers.
The letter, made available to The Trent, addressed to the UK Foreign Secretary and six other officials, requests assurances that such incidents will not occur in the future and that Obi’s personal security will be protected.
Intersociety’s letter calls for “expeditious and thorough investigations” into the April 7, 2023 incident at Heathrow Airport, where Obi was allegedly detained for hours and subjected to humiliation and embarrassment.
It also demands measures be taken to prevent similar incidents and ensure Obi’s personal security is on par with high-profile UK residents and citizens.
According to Intersociety, Obi was detained at Heathrow Airport based on false intelligence, potentially planted by agents of the Nigerian government. The organization states that this is not the first such incident, as Obi was previously detained by UK immigration officers in 2022 following similar allegations.
The letter highlights Obi’s impeccable record as a former elected public office holder in Nigeria and his long-standing status as a UK resident, taxpayer, and business owner. Intersociety contends that Obi “deserves to be secured and roundly protected under the domestic and international watch of the UK Government.”
Intersociety also requests that the findings of the investigation be acted upon expeditiously and that those responsible for supplying false intelligence be held accountable. The organisation calls for a public apology to be issued to Obi and his family and for the UK government to take measures to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
The entire statement is republished below.
UK Government Must Investigate UK Immigration Officers’ Criminalization And Assault On Peter Obi
…Intersociety Demanded In A Letter To UK Foreign Minister And Six Others
Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria
Friday, 14th April 2023
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has written to the UK Government to thoroughly investigate the Heathrow Airport immigration officers’ assault, humiliation, embarrassment and hours of detention of Chief Peter Obi, a long time UK resident and presumed winner of the Nigeria’s Feb 2023 brutally rigged Presidential Poll and avoid future occurrence and ensure that his personal security and safety like those provided for high profile UK residents/citizens are provided. The above was contained in a letter to the UK Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon James Cleverly; the UK Minister of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Dev Office, the Rt. Hon Andrew Mitchell, the Co-Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Dev Office, the Rt. Hon Anne-Maria Trevelyan, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign, Commonwealth and Dev Office, the Rt. Hon David Rutley, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign, Commonwealth and Dev Office (2), the Rt. Hon Leo Docherty, the Lord Alton of Liverpool, David Patrick Paul Alton and the Baroness Cox, Caroline Anne Cox. The letter which has since been delivered was signed by Intersociety’s three Principal Officers: Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire and Ositadinma Agu.
Our Major Prayers In The Petition
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) specifically filed the petition and strongly requested for expeditious and thorough investigations into the 7th April 2023 Heathrow Airport immigration assault, humiliation, embarrassment and hours of detention of Chief Peter Obi, a long time UK resident, legitimate businessman and taxpayer; a moralist and presumed winner of the Nigeria’s Feb 2023 brutally rigged Presidential Poll. Apart from expeditious and thorough investigations prayerfully demanded, Intersociety further requested that there should be avoidance of future occurrence of the Heathrow International Airport incident and Chief Peter Obi’s personal security and safety tantamount to that provided for high profile UK residents/citizens also ensured round the clock.
Background Information
It was credibly reported that Chief Peter Gregory Onwubuashi Obi was arrested, embarrassed, assaulted, humiliated and detained for hours at London’s Heathrow International Airport by immigration officers acting on false intelligence possibly planted by Gestapo agents holding brief for the outgoing Government of Nigeria. According to media reports, the false intelligence was internationally plotted and planted against Chief Peter Obi using an impostor to internationally discredit him as “a serial international financial criminal” involved in series of financial crimes. As a result, Chief Peter Obi was not only held and embarrassed for hours, but also his luggage and other personal items became objects of thorough search and were scattered into pieces and turned upside down. His person was also unlawfully put under caution or bodily restricted, arrested and detained for hours before being let off the hook without remorse or apology. The 7th April 2023 Heathrow International Airport incident has been found not to be the first in the months gone by. As recently as months gone by in 2022, Chief Peter Obi was surprisingly accosted by the same UK Immigration officers at a UK Airport and sniff-dogs and immigration search officers were let loose on him, claiming that “there was a shared intelligence from Nigerian Government that he (Peter Obi) was moving millions of British Pounds into UK as an international money launderer through an accomplice that traveled with him”. Not only that his luggage was scattered and torn to shreds, but also her wife was bombarded with interrogative phone calls from the UK immigration officers. Hours after the embarrassment drama, the captor UK immigration officers found nothing incriminating on Chief Peter Obi and he was allowed to go. This is also more so when it is needless to start reeling out the trauma, embarrassment, degradation, losses and harms meted out to Chief Peter Obi in the recent years gone by, in the hands of the outgoing Government of Nigeria. Apart from attempts to cripple his business empire in Nigeria, Chief Peter Obi has also passed through countless behind the scene police, anti graft body and intelligence community invitations, embarrassments and harassments.
Obi’s Impeccable Records As Former Elected Public Office Holder In Nigeria
It must not be forgotten that Chief Peter Obi is one of the minutest Nigerian elected public office holders being celebrated locally and internationally. This was as a result of his enviable “input and output legitimacies” (credible ascension to elective political office and outstanding achievements recorded) when he held sway as the presumed winner of the brutally manipulated 2003 Anambra Governorship Election and eventually the Court-reversed and retuned Governor of Anambra State (17th March 2006 to 17th March 2014; a period of eight years).
Peter Obi As Long Time UK Resident, Tax Payer And Associate Citizen
From available records, Chief Peter Gregory Obi has been a UK resident, lawful businessman, taxpayer and employer of labor for over 20 years. As duly elected Governor of Anambra State, he pushed back into Anambra State Society what he learned in the United Kingdom where he had lived including not fleecing the public funds and soiling his hands in corruption and other corrupt practices. He also ensured that public funds were used for public good and developmentally transformed his State’s human and material resources. Totality of the above earned him an enviable height and made it possible for him to presumably win the Feb 2023 Presidential and stopped from being declared as the ‘duly President-elect of Nigeria’ by INEC and its gangs. Intersociety is therefore making bold to say that Chief Peter Obi deserve to be secured and roundly protected under the domestic and international watch of the UK Government. He also represents the true and only hope for many, if not most Nigerians and if anything untoward happens to his life and dignity of human person, the heaven will let loose and the concomitant humanitarian crises, arising from over 200m citizens, shall be too difficult, if not impossible for the UK Government and its international democratic partners to handle.
Additional Request
We at Nigeria’s Intersociety made additional request that the findings of the investigations above demanded shall be expeditiously and dispassionately acted upon by UK Government. Such findings must unmask the sources or suppliers of the false intelligence upon which the UK immigration officers unlawfully acted on and that the feathers of those found culpable must be ruffled. The UK Government was further called upon to direct its High Commission/Commissioner in Nigeria to, at the end of the investigations and their findings, publicly issue an unreserved apology to the person and families of Chief Peter Obi and ensure that such despicable act does not repeat itself in future. The UK Airport immigration officers must governmentally be called to order and prohibited from such despicable act again. The respected UK Government should put a stop to such international macabre act and avoid being widely perceived or labeled “an international ally of political office gangsterism and political banditry’ in Nigeria”. The danger of the UK Government refusing to do nothing and continuing to shield such international stigmatization, false labeling and criminalization of respected statesmen like Chief Peter Obi on UK soil and beyond is that internationally prohibited and illicit narcotics can be planted on UK soil in the luggage of the Chief Peter Obi or any of Nigeria’s few remaining moralists and democracy champions so as to demonize and discredit them at international borders.
Yours Faithfully
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Nigeria)
Contacts:
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://intersociety-ng.org
