Ex-President Jonathan’s top aide, Waripamowei Dudafa, arrested at Lagos airport

• undergoing EFCC interrogation

Operatives of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) are presently grilling a former Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Domestic Matters, Waripamowei Dudafa.

Dudafa had refused to honour several invites extending to him by Nigeria’s anti graft agency to explain his role in the $2.1 billion arm deal, allegedly misappropriated by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Dudafa was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Service, (DSS), while attempting to travel out of the country through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, in Lagos.

Dudafa was on the EFCC’s wanted list for his alleged involvement in the sharing of N10billion to delegates during the December 2014 presidential primaries of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).

Dudafa allegedly converted the money into US dollars, amounting to $47million, and distributed to delegates from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Investigators say they believe the fund was part of the alleged $2.1billion meant for the purchase of arms but which authorities said was shared as slush funds to politicians through the office of a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

Dudafa was arrested and quizzed by the operatives of the DSS, before he was handed over to the EFCC yesterday.

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“He has been on our wanted list for a long time and he evaded arrest on several occasions,” a top EFCC official, who asked not to be named, said.

Contacted, the spokesperson of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, declined comment on the matter.

The anti-graft agency had recently called in for questioning former President Jonathan’s Aide de Camp, Ojogbane Adegbe, allegedly on the directive of the Nigerian Army and a known presidential ally and businessman, Jide Omokore, over a series of multi-billion dollar petrol import and crude export deals.

It will be recalled that Nigeria’s secret police had also arrested and later dismissed from service the ex-president’s Chief Security Officer, Gordon Obua, alongside the spokesperson of the agency, Marilyn Ogar and several others over what the service said were in the overriding interest of the Nigerian state.

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