Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said that he would have revenged his arrest by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi who arrested him in Anambra state as the governor of the state in 2013.
El-Rufai, while speaking at an interactive session of the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna on Monday, stated that he was detained for 48 hours by Peter Obi.
According to him, Obi was seeking a second term in office on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) at the time.
El-Rufai said he (El-Rufai) was in Anambra to monitor the state’s governorship bye-election at the time when he was detained.
“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, as governor, got me arrested and detained for 48 hours in my hotel room.
“Now I’m the Governor of Kaduna State and he’s coming to Kaduna. In addition to the police and the State Secret Service, I have one mechanised division of the 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. I wish you all safe journey back to your destinations,” he said.
The governor said that even though he has all the security architecture at his disposal now that the Labour Party candidate was also coming into his domain, he will be civil and calm and won’t revenge his arrest.
Meanwhile, Obi, defended his position, saying El-Rufai was being overzealous by accusing him of bigotry, given the circumstances that led to his arrest.
“What His Excellency, Gov. Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai said about me has been brought to my attention. I believe that as we grow older and are saddled with more responsibilities, we are expected to become circumspect in our thinking and avoid recklessness in our speeches and utterances.
“How does the circumstance he referred to related to bigotry to warrant such a label? All I do for people like El-Rufai is to pray for them and encourage them to concentrate on doing those things that will better the lots of Nigerians rather than engage in hate speeches that will divide and destroy the country,” he said.