Legal experts have described the reluctance of the UK government to surrender details of why it detained, interrogated, and deported Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, as an ominous sign of ongoing criminal investigations into the former Anambra State governor.
Recall that we exclusively reported that the arrest of Obi at Heathrow Airport in London was related to his refusal to oblige a government-mandated audit of his UK firm, Next International Limited, in what is suspected to be an attempt to cover illicit financial transactions, particularly laundering of foreign donations made to his campaign.
Multiple sources confirmed that Obi got into the crosshairs of international security agencies, specifically the anti-money laundering division, with his prominent mention in the PANDORA PAPERS leak. He was revealed to operate a series of shell firms and bank accounts with which he ferried questionable funds from Nigeria and other covert sources across Europe.
The UK government has declined requests to state the official reason for Obi’s Easter detention and questioning with a terse statement saying it doesn’t answer requests made on individual cases. However, legal experts in the country, some of whom spoke exclusively to this publication, described the statement as “government-speak for ‘we do not wish to compromise our ongoing investigations by revealing details that may tip off the culprit and sabotage our efforts to legally nail him.”
“If it were merely a routine matter or a case of improper travel documents, the UK government would have since set the records straight with a statement describing the situation and maybe even advising the individual involved and other travellers alike on how to perfect their travel documents before entering the UK. But the official silence the government has chosen is only deployed in serious matters involving criminal investigations. There is a chance that Obi’s detention and questioning is part of a wider investigation into his activities in the country and the government is wary of compromising its case against him by divulging too much too early,” one of them said.
Another also pointed to Obi’s self-imposed silence as indicative of “a man who knows the severity of the case against him and has received legal counsel to remain quiet lest he compounds his situation.”
Note that Obi was swift to deny and distance himself from a report that emanated from his supporters that an apology was made to him by the government. He clarified that he received no apology but kept mum on demands for an explanation of why he was arrested and interrogated.