Governor El-Rufai claimed during an interactive session organised by the Arewa Joint Committee that he was arrested and detained for 48 hours in Anambra State in 2013 on the orders of Obi, the state’s then-Governor.
According to the governor, he was arrested while visiting Anambra on behalf of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to monitor the state’s governorship bye-election.
Responding to the Kaduna governor’s claim, Peter Obi denied being responsible for El-Rufai’s arrest and detention at the event.
According to the presidential candidate, he was a governor on the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) platform, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controlled the federal government.
He said: “When I came in now, somebody told me that my brother, the governor of Kaduna state, said that he came to my state and I detained him. Let me tell you, it is good when these things happen, you clarify them.
“Number one, in my eight years of being governor, only in the first three months did I have a commissioner that is not from the north — commissioner of police. And that’s because I met the person.
“At the time the governor said this, it was during election. The police commissioner that was there then was from Adamawa — CP Gwari from Adamawa. The AIG that supervised that election was CP Nasarawa from the north. The DIG that came for that election was from Kano.
“Tell me my power, that I was in APGA — government was PDP and APC. Tell me how APGA person will issue order for somebody to be detained. Even me was detained in my local government.
“However, the only offence I committed is that when they asked me, I said ‘that’s how they treat everybody; that I wouldn’t be in Kaduna on the day of election’. That was the only thing.
“There is no way. I cannot do that. As governor of Anambra state, I had the best ADC in Nigeria — the best policeman. My ADC, Mohammed, is from Kano. He’s the best policeman that I have ever met. Who will I give the order? How will I tell who lives in my house every day; I’m close to his family; I get up and say ‘Mohammed, I want to deal with your people’, and he will stay there.
“Call my ADC today. I will give you his phone number. He’s the best policeman. He’s a CSP now. So, when people say Peter Obi is black. 2019, I was [vice-presidential candidate], I was a good man. Now that I want to be president, I’ve become a bad man. I did not do anything wrong. I want to change Nigeria.”
