EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released the immediate-past governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano.
This online media platform recalls that Obiano was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Thursday, the same day he handed over the reins to his successor, Prof. Charles Soludo, as governor of Anambra.
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Obiano, who was governor of Anambra for eight years, was picked up by the EFCC operatives as he prepared to board a flight to Houston, in the US state of Texas.
In a letter to the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) dated November 15, 2021, EFCC requested the NIS to place the governor on a watchlist and inform it anytime he is travelling out of the country from any of the international airports and other points of entry and exit.
The move, EKO HOT BLOG gathered was an indication that the agency may have been discreetly investigating the governor and possibly had intelligence that he planned to travel after handing over to Soludo.
It is, however, not clear why the anti-graft agency placed the governor on a watchlist.
The arrest of the immediate past governor has since sparked mixed reactions from Nigerians at large.
Former Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Don Adinuba, had, at the time, condemned the EFCC watchlist reports, claiming that they were politically motivated.
“Governor Obiano has a whole four months to remain in office as the Anambra State chief executive,” Adinuba said. “Nobody in Nigeria can circumscribe his constitutionally conferred immunity which shields him from both criminal and civil prosecution.
“The EFCC went too far to announce in November that it is observing him. We are not aware of any state governor who had up to four months to be in office and the EFCC went on to sponsor media reports that he was being investigated.”
Details later…
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