UPDATED: Why we’ve not released ex-Anambra governor Obiano

The former governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, who was arrested last week, has not been released because he has not met his bail conditions, an official has said.

Ibrahim Bawa, the EFCC chairman, said this Monday while addressing journalists in Abuja.

“He has been granted bail. But we await (when) he fulfils his bail conditions,” Mr Bawa said. He did not elaborate on the bail conditions.

The EFCC boss also dismissed claims that the arrest and detention of the former governor were politically-motivated.

He said: ”There is nothing political about the arrest of the former Anambra State Governor, Wille Obiano,

“We are a financial 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.

“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 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, had 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 day 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.