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London Immigration Saga: Ohanaeze Reacts, Says Plots Against Peter Obi Will Fail

Published

2 years ago

April 12, 2023

Apex Igbo socio-cultural body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has condemned last week’s reported attempt to arrest the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in London, the UK, as a move by political enemies.

Ohanaeze said any plot to embarrass and pull down Peter Obi, because he had decided to legally pursue the mandate believed to have been given him by Nigerians, will continue to fail.

Obi was said to have been interrogated at Heathrow Airport, London, on April 7, over his identity.

Obi disclosed this to longtime ally, Prof. Stella Okunna, who served under him in many capacities when he was the governor of Anambra State.

The sole aim of faking Obi’s identity was to use his name to commit crime in London and other parts of the world so as to get him implicated in dubious and criminal activities and rope him into any number of offences to get him out of the political space, Ohanaeze held.

In her account of what Obi told her, as narrated in her Facebook account, Prof. Okunna, in the piece she titled: “What Peter Obi is going through: does any human being deserve this type of shocking intimidation and emotional torture?”, narrates:

How it happened at Heathrow
“Today 11/04/2023, I was shocked beyond words to hear from His Excellency, Mr. Peter what he went through when his British Airways plane landed at Heathrow Airport, London, in the early morning of Friday 07/04/2023.

“He was talking to me at the official opening of the Specialist Hospital of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters, Nkpor.

“He had arrived at the event after flying in from London, his presence heralded by the usual ‘ear-splitting’ ovation that accompanies him everywhere nowadays.

“As the ‘Most Outstanding Pillar of the Foundation/Hospital’, the Reverend Sisters were full of expectations that he would attend; so were we (members of the Governing Board of the IHM Sisters Healthcare System), although there was also anxiety about whether he would be able to make it, being outside Nigeria.

“I actually had no idea he had travelled out of the country, until the ovation over his presence in a London Church went viral on the Internet.

“I would never have imagined he would be able to go anywhere so soon after his energy-sapping marathon visits on 06/04 to Paul University, Regina Caeli Hospital and other health facilities, where he went about touching lives in his usual quiet philanthropic manner.

“His whirlwind activities that day in Anambra State and beyond were another eloquent testimony to Peter Obi’s incredible stamina and multi-tasking capacity.

“To be able to fly out of the country that night, made this capacity even more incredible.

“Landing in London, Peter Obi joined the usual queue to pass through Immigration, and that was when his ordeal began.

“He was stopped and questioned for a long time and subsequently handed a detention note and told to wait for further interrogation and investigation. This was terribly unusual for a man who had lived honourably in the UK for a long time.

“In the face of this harassment, some well-meaning Nigerians, knowing who he is, raised their voices in protest, demanding to know why he was being treated that way.

“Then came the shocking revelation by the Immigration Officer who told him that his identity ‘WAS DUPLICATED’. This revelation has definitely set off alarm bells.

“For people who are knowledgeable about such matters, this is a very dangerous development because the implication is that someone is impersonating Peter Obi.

“And that someone could implicate Obi in all manner of dubious and even criminal activities, and rope him into any number of offences; he could get Obi framed for one criminal act or another.

“The frightening scenario of what can happen is unimaginable!

“This is the height of it all for a man who has been under sundry intimidation and emotional torture: bugging of his phone and those of his wife and children; keeping him constantly under surveillance; calling him names; putting him under severe pressure to leave (run away from) the country; wrongly accusing him of negative things he knows absolutely nothing about etc.

“As he was telling me his ‘Heathrow tale of woe’ at Nkpor today, I could see a man who was in severe pain and and under unbearable stress, who many would expect to be at the point of despair.

“But, as he confirmed, he is ready to suffer this pain and is as determined as ever to pursue the path which he has chosen to enable him arrive at the destination which well-meaning people in Nigeria and far far beyond are expecting him to arrive at.

“This is the destination where Nigerians will be able to live in a secure and productive country which they (particularly the younger generations) will be proud to call their own.

“Ahead, Ahead!

“I suppose he told me all this confidentially. My very sincere apologies, Your Excellency, for ‘breaking’ this confidentiality, but history beckons and I cannot keep quiet,” Prof. Okunna was quoted as saying.

Ohanaeze kicks

Reacting to this, Ohanaeze Ndigbo condemned “the embarrassment and evil plots to rope Peter Obi”, saying all of them will fail.

“It is very unfortunate for those who want to rope in Obi and embarrass him. However, it was good it happened. After this, there will not be such a thing again anywhere in the world as they have been exposed.

“They have exposed their plots to the whole world. But whoever is playing such is wasting time and energy.

“It is very clear to the world that the man is a man of integrity and law abiding, who had been pursuing his mandate legally. So, any plot to rope him I and embarrass him will continue to fail. They are being exposed.

“It is unfortunate that some Nigerians still want us back wards. But we will resist it, Nigerians will resist it, the youths will resist it because they want a future,” Ohanaeze said through the National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Alex Chidozie Ogbonnia.
VANGUARD

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US Appeal Court Rules Against Trump Birthright Citizenship Order

Published

9 hours ago

July 24, 2025

Editor

A US appeals court on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump’s order restricting birthright citizenship was unconstitutional and backed the decision of a lower court to block the nationwide order.

The order has been mired in legal back-and-forth for months, and is currently halted by a federal court amid multiple legal proceedings.

The Supreme Court ruled last month that lone judges had likely exceeded their powers by issuing nationwide injunctions against a string of Trump’s policies, including his move to end birthright citizenship.

Several district judges had blocked Trump’s attempt to end the longstanding rule, guaranteed in the US Constitution, that anyone born on US soil is automatically an American citizen.

But the Ninth District Court of Appeals ruled that an injunction issued by a district judge based in Seattle was not a case of judicial overreach.

“We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a universal injunction in order to give the States complete relief,” Judge Ronald Gould wrote.

According to Gould’s ruling, limiting an injunction to the state level would be as ineffective as not blocking the order at all, because of complications that could arise if people move between states with different citizenship rules.

The appeals court also concluded that Trump’s birthright order went against the wording of the US Constitution.

“The district court correctly concluded that the Executive Order’s proposed interpretation, denying citizenship to many persons born in the United States, is unconstitutional. We fully agree,” Gould wrote.

Trump’s executive order decrees that children born to parents in the United States illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become citizens — a radical reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

The current Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, avoided ruling last month on the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order and only addressed the issue of nationwide injunctions, which was nevertheless claimed by Trump as a “giant win.”

The Supreme Court also left open the possibility that executive orders could be blocked via broad class-action lawsuits against the government.

A federal judge earlier this month granted class-action status to any child who would potentially be denied citizenship under Trump’s order, and issued a preliminary halt to it as legal proceedings carry on.

AFP

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49 Feared Dead As Passenger Plane Crashes In Russia

Published

9 hours ago

July 24, 2025

Editor

A passenger plane carrying 49 people crashed in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur on Thursday, authorities said.

The aircraft, a twin-engine Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar, regional governor Vassily Orlov said on Telegram.

A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a mountainside about 16 kilometres (10 miles) from Tynda.

The helicopter saw no evidence of survivors from above, local rescuers said.

The Amur region’s civil defence agency said it was dispatching rescuers to the scene.

“At the moment, 25 people and five units of equipment have been dispatched, and four aircraft with crews are on standby,” it said.

AFP

Headline

19 Dead As Bangladesh Fighter Jet Crashes Into School

Published

3 days ago

July 21, 2025

Editor

A Bangladeshi training fighter jet crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens more in the country’s deadliest aviation accident in decades.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw fire and rescue officials taking away the injured students on stretchers, while military personnel helped clear the wreckage.

A military statement said 19 people were killed, including the pilot, and 20 others were critically wounded.

At least 51 people, mostly students, were undergoing treatment at Dhaka’s National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute, its director Mohammad Nasir Uddin told AFP.

The Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft crashed moments after students were let out of class at 1:00 pm (0700 GMT) at the Milestone School and College.

A witness said he heard a huge blast that felt like an earthquake.

“We have two playgrounds, one for the senior students and one for the juniors,” said Shafiur Rahman Shafi, 18, who is enrolled at the school.

“We were on the playground for the seniors. There were two fighter planes… Suddenly one of the two planes crashed here (in the junior playground),” he told AFP.

“It created a boom, and it felt like a quake. Then it caught fire, and the army reached the spot later.”

The interim government of Muhammad Yunus announced a day of national mourning on Tuesday.

Grieving parents and relatives of the victims thronged the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.

Tofazzal Hossain, 30, broke down in tears on learning that his young cousin had been killed.

“We frantically searched for my cousin in different hospitals,” Hossain told AFP.

“He was an eighth grader at the school. Finally, we found his body.”

Yunus expressed “deep grief and sorrow” over the incident in a post on X.

“The loss suffered by the Air Force, the students, parents, teachers, and staff of Milestone School and College, as well as others affected by this accident, is irreparable,” he said.

“This is a moment of profound pain for the nation.”

The crash was the worst aviation accident in the country in several decades.

The deadliest ever disaster happened in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board.

Last month, a commercial aircraft crashed in neighbouring India, killing 260 people.