2023 Election:Ezekwesili Warns Buhari Regime Against Arresting Obi, Datti

Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has dismissed as “nonsense” a call by Festus Keyamo for the State Security Service to arrest Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed for treason.

Mr Keyamo, a spokesman for the All Progressives Congress presidential campaign, had on Thursday petitioned the SSS to arrest Messrs Obi and Datti, accusing the duo of plotting to truncate Nigeria’s democracy.

His allegation drew the ire of the former minister who responded in a series of tweets.

“I saw a ludicrous piece of nonsense by a Minister in the @NigeriaGov of @NGRPresident @MBuhari, stoking the embers of destabilisation of Nigeria by goading and inciting @OfficialDSSNG to arrest the @NgLabour Presidential Candidate and his VP,” Mrs Ezekwesili said in tweets.

Warning the secret police and President Muhammadu Buhari against yielding to Mr Keyamo’s “foolish” ideas, Mrs Ezekwesili said “let me tell @OfficialDSSNG @NigeriaGov @NGRPresident and the leaders of the ruling Party @OfficialAPCNg about a very wise saying of our neighbours, the Ghanaians: If no one advises you, advise yourself. A word is sufficient to prevent foolishness.”

Messrs Obi and Baba-Ahmed were flag bearers of the Labour Party in the just concluded presidential election. They are in court challenging the outcome of the polls which returned Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as president-elect.

Mr Keyamo’s call for Mr Obi’s arrest comes two days after Mr Obi filed a petition before the presidential election tribunal, challenging Mr Tinubu’s victory in the February 25th presidential election.

Labour Party’s spokesperson Yunusa Tanko on Tuesday said Mr Obi’s petition before the tribunal kick-starts legal battle to reclaim Mr Obi’s mandate from President-elect Bola Tinubu of APC.

In the petition, the LP presidential candidate said President-elect Mr Tinubu is unqualified to be Nigeria’s President due to his past involvement in drug trafficking case in which he forfeited sum funds to the American government.

Mr Obi, in the petition filed by his legal team on Tuesday, further cited the drug trafficking case involving Mr Tinubu, challenging the qualification of the president-elect before the tribunal.