The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has given NDC presidential candidate Peter Obi a seven-day ultimatum to publicly apologise to airport officials and pay a N25,000 parking fine over an incident at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja
In a statement on Friday, Keyamo said an internal investigation, supported by CCTV footage, disputed Obi’s claim that his vehicle was clamped due to political persecution.
According to the minister, the incident happened on July 4 when Obi arrived at the airport’s domestic terminal around 8:28 p.m. He alleged that after Obi got out of the vehicle, his police driver left it unattended in a designated drop-off area after entering the terminal, contrary to airport regulations.
Keyamo said the driver briefly returned before abandoning the vehicle again, prompting airport security officials to clamp its tyres. He added that officials were unaware the vehicle belonged to Obi when the enforcement action was taken.
The minister further claimed the driver later contacted Obi, who spoke with the airport manager and requested that the vehicle be released. The vehicle was subsequently released without payment of the required N25,000 penalty.
Keyamo maintained that leaving a vehicle unattended in a restricted airport zone for about 30 minutes posed a serious security risk and violated aviation safety rules.
He accused Obi of turning the incident into a political issue despite it having been resolved, insisting that airport officials were simply enforcing existing regulations.
The minister demanded that Obi publicly apologise to the airport workers and voluntarily pay the outstanding fine within seven days, warning that failure to do so would lead to further action by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
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