Vote-buying: EFCC grabs Atiku’s moneyman for laundering $4m, recovers documents, others

The EFCC has arrested an associate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate for allegedly laundering $4 million.

The money is termed “suspicious election cash”.

Uyiekepen Giwa-Osague was arrested following an intelligence report on a suspicious transaction by a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator, according to a report by the Nation.

The daily had exclusively reported how the PDP and its candidate Atiku Abubakar allocated $3 million each for “logistics” to its 36 state branches and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Most Bureau De Change operators and banks have, however, refused the “pressure” to convert the hard currency to Naira.

“A BDC operator was intercepted for shipping $2 million from Abuja to Lagos for suspected money laundering,’’ Sources in EFCC is reported to have said.

The source said the BDC operator admitted that the suspect, who is Atiku’s lawyer, paid the Naira equivalent of $4 million into his account in exchange for hard currency.

“We invited the suspect for interrogation on Monday and Tuesday. Our detectives have also conducted a search of his home. Some useful documents were retrieved. Investigation is, however, still in progress.”

“Apart from documents relating to posh properties at home and abroad, a copy of the EFCC Investigation Report on Atiku’s relationship with a jailed U.S. lawmaker, Williams Jefferson, was retrieved.’’