Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has asked Peter Obi — the NDC presidential candidate — to publicly apologise over claims that his car was unfairly clamped at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Obi had told Chude Jideonwo on With Chude that he was being personally attacked as an opposition figure. “They are attacking everybody who is in opposition personally. I am being attacked personally. Everything. Even to provide me with necessary things that I should have been entitled to, not at all,” he said. “I had a case recently at the airport, where people who work in the airport came and locked my car. And I said, ‘It’s me.’ The person in charge said he doesn’t care. “But I said, ‘Look at the cars of other people.’ And you could see them talking to each other, as if, ‘Who is this one?’”
Keyamo posted CCTV footage on X and said he ordered an internal probe after the allegation. The footage, he said, shows Obi arriving at the domestic terminal at about 8:28 p.m. on July 4, 2026, in a vehicle driven by a police officer. The driver dropped Obi and two others, parked in the drop-off zone, left the vehicle unattended and went into the terminal. “The airport rule is that, apart from the fact that it is a drop-off zone, a driver must remain behind the wheels of the vehicle for it to be tolerated for some time within that zone,” he said.
The officer briefly returned for an item, left again, and airport security clamped the tyres. “When the policeman returned and discovered the tyres were clamped, he was directed to an office where he called Mr. Peter Obi and handed the phone to the manager. Mr. Peter Obi then introduced himself, spoke with the manager, and requested the release of the vehicle. His vehicle was subsequently released without payment of the prescribed fine.”
Keyamo called the unattended car a security risk that sat there about 30 minutes, accused Obi of politicising the matter and said, “What has emerged from this is a clear case of an opposition candidate trying to whip up unnecessary sentiments for a wrong he committed with his driver,” Keyamo said. He demanded an unreserved apology to airport staff, asked Obi to return and pay the N25,000 fine, and warned: “If these demands are not met within one week, I will be giving the necessary directives to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to take the next steps against him.”
