Buhari looks on as EFCC arrests Fani-Kayode, compounds APC defector’s case with fresh forgeries

After hopping from the PDP to the APC weeks ago, with photo-ops and junkets, Femi Fani-Kayode might have heaved a sigh of relief—the sort he  anticipated with respect to his corruption trial in Lagos.

Far from it. He has just been arrested, and bundled to the EFCC Lagos office.

His case is rather compounded as the EFCC prosecuting him for his role in the 2014 Dasukigate is exposing his forgery that helped stall his case before a Lagos high court.

The former aviation minister has been shirking appearances claiming sickness, using medical documents.

The EFCC believes the tactic is criminal, according to a report by the ICIR.

November 24, the commission’s Lagos office will host him for another round of interrogation of its findings—possible forgery of hospital documents to deceive court.

A pattern that shows up in the letters Fani-Kayode has been sending to the court is the reason for his latest trouble.

All the letters were from the Kubwa General Hospital, Abuja, except one issued from the Federal Staff Hospital, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, signed by different doctors, with the last one in October stating that the “patient (Fani-Kayode) has been diagnosed by one Dr. S. A. Tobechukwu” and signed by him.

On enquiry, the EFCC received a  letter from the hospital management on October 13, 2021, declaring there was no Doctor Tobechukwu on its staff, and that, in fact, none of the names of the ‘doctors’ who purportedly issued the five letters existed in the hospital’s records.

It also claimed no Femi Fani-Kayode has ever been diagnosed or treated as a patient at the hospital.

The letterhead on the paper that Fani-Kayode used for his letters, the hospital stated, was fake and did not bear its reference number, just as the format of the patient’s number that he used did not tally with the format in the hospital’s database.

Fani-Kayode on November 4, 2021, got an EFCC invitation to report at its Lagos office on November 10, 2021, and the commission insisted it had to be the Lagos office, despite his plea to report at the Abuja office.

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But he told the EFCC on November 9 he would be unable to honour the invitation because he would be prpeapring with his lawyers for an appearance before an Abuja court on November 16.

The date he chose, Nov 17, he equally refused to honor.

He has again chosen Nov 24.

Many had thought Fani-Kayode defection meant President Muhammadu Buhari would rein in the attack dogs seeking the former PDP operative’s conviction for corruption.