I Was Not Arrested..Mrs Ajimobi Speaks From London

AMIDST reports that she was arrested in London for alleged money laundering, wife of the Oyo State governor, Mrs Florence Ajimobi, on Tuesday, described the report as a rumour sponsored by people playing dirty politics.

Reports of her alleged arrest by the London Metropolitan Police, went viral on the internet on Tuesday with the Nigerian Tribune innundated with calls on the veracity of the reports.

An evening newspaper based in Lagos also heightened the tension with an alleged confirmation by the Met police of the arrest of Mrs Ajimobi over an alleged attempt to launder £400,000.

However, both Mrs Ajimobi and the British High Commission in Nigeria denied the reported arrest, with the governor’s wife declaring that she was not picked up by the police for any offence.

Speaking with newsmen in a telephone conversation, Mrs Ajimobi said she was in London to return her 14-year-old daughter to her school, adding that she would return to Nigeria this morning.

The telephone encounter between her and the newsmen went thus:

Journalists: Good evening.

Mrs Ajimobi: Good evening. How are you?

We are fine. Is it true that you have been arrested in London?
It is a lie. I don’t know what they are talking about and where they got the information from. I left Nigeria on Sunday, to take my daughter back to school and hopefully I should be in Nigeria tomorrow (today). I don’t know where they got that rumour from.

Were you at any time invited by the police?
No. I came…I have never been invited by the police and I don’t know what they are talking about. And I don’t know where the rumour is coming from.

What is your mission at this time in England?
What is my mission? Like I said, I brought my daughter here. I have a 14-year-old daughter. She is schooling here and she has been schooling here over the past five years. She came in 2007. She should have returned to school on Sunday but because of Sallah I could not bring her. We left Nigeria Sunday morning and she returned to school yesterday (Monday) morning. That is my mission here.

Did you read the report of your arrest in the online media and newspapers?
Yes I did. I was shocked and surprised when I read the report. There is no iota of truth in everything they said in the report. It is blatant lie and as far as I am concerned….journalists that allow themselves to be used…even if they are going to write anything, they should try and find out, get information and be sure of what they are writing.

When are you expected back in the country?
Tomorrow morning (today).

It was alleged that you have travelled out of the country 52 times since the inauguration of this administration.
(bursts into laughter) That is ridiculous. If I travelled 52 times, that means I don’t live in Nigeria at all…(bursts into laughter again).

Ok. How many times have you travelled?
Maybe when I come back I will give you my passport…(laughs again). I want us to deal with facts. When I come back, you can take a look at my passport and see. I have a daughter that has been schooling in England since 2007 and if you look at my passport, you will see I have travelled less (than the number quoted). She is just going to be 15 in…..She comes to Nigeria because she does not have people she can stay with.

Also reacting, Hooman Nouruzi, press secretary, UK High Commission, Abuja, said the commission had no information to suggest Mrs Ajimobi was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police.

Meanwhile, Governor Ajimobi has threatened to sue a Lagos-based newspaper for the sum of N1 billion.

This was disclosed in a release issued by Dr Festus Adedayo, his Special Adviser on Media.

The newspaper had, on Tuesday, published a piece, entitled “Anxiety over Florence Ajimobi’s alleged arrest in UK,” wherein it published a story purportedly written by an online agency which alleged that the wife of the governor had been arrested in London for money laundering.

According to the release, “the state government has the responsibility to ensure that the media did not become an instrument in the hands of blackmailers for such acts.

“We want to state unequivocally that this report is not only wicked, it is also the figment of the imagination of the writers. 

“Mrs Ajimobi was never arrested for any offence whatsoever. Even though our investigations have shown that this is the work of some arrowheads of the opposition, it was done in such an amateurish way that beats the imagination of any responsible reader.”

The government said though it had a lot of respect for the media, there was the need to drag the runners of these media to court to explain the details of their reports to the rest of the world.