Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, at the weekend raided and searched a building housing an apartment occupied by two sons of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP..
The building it was learnt also houses an apartment occupied by Chiemeka Orji, son of ex-Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji. That apartment was also reportedly searched by anti-graft operatives.
Although our sources said the home of Mr. Abubakar’s children was the primary target, an anti-graft spokesperson suggested Chiemeka might have been the target.
The raid on Aliyu and Mustapha Atiku-Abubakar’s residence in the posh Maitama neighbourhood on Saturday comes a day after claims emerged that Mr Abubakar’s running mate, Peter Obi, had his bank accounts frozen by federal authorities. Two anti-graft agencies, EFCC and ICPC, denied freezing Mr Obi’s accounts.
Paul Ibe, a spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar family, confirmed the search on Sunday, saying the officers who conducted the “grievous act of intimidation” were “unable to find anything implicating.”
Neither Aliyu nor Mustapha was in town when the anti-graft agents arrived — as both are said to be studying for master’s degrees at foreign universities — but those with whom they share the building were reportedly taken to the EFCC office and some of their properties confiscated, sources said.
Amongst those arrested was Chiemeka whose father is now a serving senator. Chiemeka was said to have been taken to the EFCC office in Abuja alongside his brother, and two vehicles confiscated from them.
“When the EFCC officers arrived on Saturday, they met Theodore Orji’s sons at home, because they both live in the same building,” a source said. “They asked to see the apartment of Aliyu and Mustapha Atiku-Abubakar but Theodore Orji’s sons refused to show them, saying their friends are out of the country, anyway.”
“The EFCC operatives then said they have intelligence that a large cache of dollars had been kept in the apartment which they had come to recover,” the source said. “They forcibly searched the apartment, but there was no hard currency or anything that could be construed as fraudulently damning.”
Our sources said Chiemeka and his brother were released soon after they were questioned at the EFCC office, but two cars belonging to them were still in possession of the anti-graft agency as of Monday morning.
A spokesperson for the EFCC, Tony Orilade, said he has no immediate knowledge of the operation, but expressed strong doubts that Mr Abubakar’s son’s home could be raided.
Orilade said the EFCC has been investigating Mr Orji, and it was possible the former governor’s children were the target of further investigation into how state funds were used during his tenure from 2007 to 2015.
