Joseph Bakare
Peter Obi, running mate to Atiku Abubakar under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has claimed that security operatives searched the private jet of Atiku Abubakar upon his arrival to Nigeria from Dubai, because he is the presidential candidate of the opposition party.
Atiku was searched by a combined security team, including operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Obi, who spoke on a programme on Arise Television, said, “His only offence is that he is the presidential candidate of an opposition party. It is not as if you are not allowed to do a routine check,” Obi said.
“I’ve been privileged to have travelled with a number of high-profile people in the past in a private jet where they gave me a lift. I’ve not experienced what was experienced. What I am saying is that we have a country and what we need now is to be showing each other love and show the example to the younger ones that we are not divided, that we are together, that we want the country to work. It’s about the country.
“All these divisions are not necessary for our future. But what we do is that we are dividing the country. But you see people coming to a programme chanting war songs. It shouldn’t be.”
Meanwhile, minister of state for aviation, Hadi Sirika, said Atiku was only raising a false alarm, adding that searching of planes is a “routine process” and only the president of Nigeria is exempted from the search.