Human rights lawyer and activist, Deji Adeyanju, has criticised Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, over an alleged incident involving a ₦25,000 airport parking fine.
In a post shared on social media, Adeyanju claimed that the fine was an ordinary penalty that many motorists have paid after their vehicles were clamped for wrongful parking at Nigerian airports.
According to him, both his driver and his wife’s driver had paid similar fines on several occasions without needing to seek his intervention, adding that they usually informed him afterward and presented the receipts.
Adeyanju alleged that in Obi’s case, the former Anambra State governor’s driver reportedly contacted him after the vehicle was clamped, prompting Obi to allegedly call airport officials in an attempt to have the vehicle released without paying the fine.
He dismissed suggestions that the incident amounted to political persecution, arguing that a vehicle being clamped for violating airport parking regulations should not be interpreted as evidence of anyone being targeted.
“The irony of that incident is the fact that his driver does not have ₦25,000 to pay a fine at the airport that he had to call his principal to call the airport officials to release him,” Adeyanju wrote, while describing Obi as “stingy” and “a very anyhow person.”
