Arrest of Atiku’s son, tales by mischief makers – EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes commission, EFCC, has debunked the claimed that its operatives raided the home and arrested sons of the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

According to an earlier, the anti-graft agents were said to have invaded the residence belonging to Aliyu and Mustapha in the Maitama area of Abuja on Saturday, December 8, 2018.

The building was also reported to house another apartment owned by Chiemeka Orji, the son of former Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, who’s under EFCC investigation over how he managed state funds when he was governor between 2007 and 2015.

In a release on Monday, EFCC’s Acting Spokesperson, Mr. Tony Orilade, described the claim as another tales by moonlight by some mischief makers.

Oriade said the agency never went after Atiku’s sons, neither were Atiku’s sons among the two boys arrested.

The spokesperson, however, said “it is in the news that we have been investigating the former Abia governor, Sen. Theodore Orji, over alleged N27 billion money-laundering.

”In the course of investigation, we discovered that he laundered part of the money through his sons.

”We have been on the trail of some of the purchases made by his sons, including the cars the boys allegedly bought. There is no link whatsoever to Atiku,” he said.

Last Friday, we traced one of the cars to a Nite Club in Abuja. In order not to cause panic, we waited until the business of the club was over and we when the owner of the suspected car came to enter to take off, we arrested him and his friend who has a similar brand of car. That was about 5am on Saturday, December 8, 2018.

“The two boys we arrested were Ogbonna Orji, 32, and Kelvin Ilonah. While Orji’s Car, a Range Rover is valued at about N100 million, Ilonah’s car also a Range Rover, is valued at about N35 Million.”

He said in the course of further interrogation, the two boys led operatives to their apartment, three flats, and documents retrieved from the apartment showed it was rented for N13 million each per annum.

According to Oriade, another brand new Prado Jeep, a 2017 model was recovered from the boys in the compound. The two boys in question gave useful information to the Commission which is helping in our further investigation.

Oriade also debunked the allegation that the agency blocked the accounts of the Vice Presidential candidate of the PDD, Peter Obi. “Again, this was another lie which we immediately punctured as there was no truth in it whatsoever, to the accusation. Till now, only silence has prevailed from the camp of the accusers.”

He said that the commission, as a responsible organisation, was abreast of the establishment mandate and shall not deviate from such mandate.