UPDATED: EFCC chair Bawa reacts to ex-governor Obiano’s arrest, alleged political persecution

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Monday that the recent arrest and questioning of Willie Obiano, the immediate-past governor of Anambra State, is not politically-motivated.

The EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, said this while fielding questions from reporters at the 5th Annual General Assembly of the Network of National Anti-corruption institutions in West Africa (NACIWA).

“There is nothing political about the arrest of the former Anambra State Governor, Wille Obiano. He has been granted bail. But we await (when) he fulfils his bail conditions.

“We are an institution, and we know what the EFCC stands for. We investigate crime and we look at people who have committed a crime. And of course, we go to court and we have been doing that. And that is what we would continue to do.”

Asked to give an update on the ongoing investigation of the former governor, Mr Bawa said: “I don’t know what update you want me to give, because you have been accusing us of media trials, and you want me to say we are doing this and that. No, we (EFCC) would not do that. We would continue to do our investigation professionally as we have been doing.”

Mr Bawa also said the commission had granted an administrative bail to Mr Obiano but the ex-governor had yet to meet the bail conditions.

“He (Mr Obiano) has been granted bail. And we are waiting for him to fulfil his bail condition he has been cooperating with us and everything is going on well.

Mr Bawa made the remark in response to claims that the former governor’s arrest was politically motivated.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), an opposition party, has criticised Mr Obiano’s detention by the EFCC, calling it a “politically motivated witch-hunt.”

In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, Mr Obiano’s spokesperson, James Eze, accused the anti-graft authority of persecuting Mr Obiano, adding that an accused person is presumed innocent until convicted.

Backstory

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Obiano was arrested at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos at about 8.30 p.m. on Thursday, the same he officially vacated office after the constitutionally permitted eight years tenure.

Sources at the commission, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the press on the matter, said Mr Obiano was arrested as he was preparing to board a flight to Houston, Texas, United States.

On Friday, EFCC transferred him from its Lagos office, where he was first detained, to Abuja for further questioning.

The former governor has now spent four nights in EFCC custody.

A 12-second clip that has gone viral across social media platforms, had shown Mr Obiano, who was dressed in shorts and a white shirt, drinking water from a bottle in a closed room presumed to be in EFCC custody.

The video has since elicited reactions with many Nigerians denouncing it and others demanding an investigation into the leakage of the clip.

Mr Eze described the leakage of the video footage, showing his principal in his “underpants” in detention as an indication of persecution and “an assault of the dignity of Nigerians, not Obiano alone”.

He also called for an immediate investigation of “the awful treatment” of his boss whom he said is presumed innocent under the law and deserves to be treated with dignity.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in November last year that the EFCC had in a letter to the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) dated November 15, 2021, requested the Service 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.