Nigeria’s aviation minister, Festus Keyamo, has given opposition politician Peter Obi a seven-day deadline to apologise publicly to airport officials and pay a ₦25,000 (£13) parking fine, escalating a dispute over an incident at Abuja’s international airport that has become the latest flashpoint in the country’s increasingly polarised political climate.
In a statement issued on Friday, Keyamo said an internal investigation, supported by CCTV footage from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, contradicted Obi’s claim that his vehicle had been unlawfully clamped in an act of political intimidation.
According to the minister, the incident occurred on 4 July after Obi arrived at the airport’s domestic terminal at about 8.28pm.
Keyamo said Obi’s police driver parked the vehicle in a designated drop-off zone after the former Anambra state governor had entered the terminal. The driver allegedly left the vehicle unattended while accompanying Obi inside the building, in breach of airport parking regulations.
Although the driver briefly returned to the vehicle, he later left it unattended again, prompting airport security officials to immobilise it by clamping its tyres, the minister said.
Keyamo insisted that officials enforcing the regulations were unaware that the vehicle belonged to Obi and therefore acted without regard to the identity of its occupant.
According to the minister, the driver contacted Obi after discovering the vehicle had been clamped, and Obi subsequently spoke with the airport manager to request its release.
The vehicle was eventually released without payment of the prescribed ₦25,000 penalty, Keyamo said.
He argued that leaving a vehicle unattended in a restricted airport zone for approximately 30 minutes constituted a serious breach of aviation security protocols and ran contrary to internationally recognised safety standards.
The minister accused Obi, the Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, of misrepresenting the incident by portraying routine enforcement of airport regulations as politically motivated harassment.
He said the matter had already been resolved before Obi publicly alleged that he had been unfairly targeted.
Keyamo demanded that Obi issue an “unreserved public apology” to airport personnel, whom he described as public servants carrying out their lawful responsibilities, and voluntarily return to pay the waived parking fine.
The minister warned that if Obi failed to comply within seven days, he would instruct the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to take further action.
The dispute has added another layer of tension between the Tinubu administration and one of its most prominent political opponents, with both sides seeking to frame the incident either as evidence of impartial enforcement of security rules or as an example of the government’s treatment of opposition figures.
