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Ohakim not arrested in London - EFCC
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Ikedi Ohakim
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has described as false reports in some newspapers that Imo State Governor Ikedi Ohakim was arrested and interrogated by operatives of the London Metropolitan Police over an alleged laundering of $2.1 million (N245.7-million)
Reacting to the reports yesterday EFCC’s head of media and publicity Osita Nwaja said “checks by the commission with the law enforcement agencies mentioned do not bear out the stories of arrest and interrogation of the governor”.
EFCC’s reaction came on the heels of the statement by the Imo state government that the allegations of the arrest of Ohakim was purely political and the antics of desperate politicians who were bent on destroying the governor’s image.
According to Nwaja, “the report of the said arrest of Governor Ohakim of Imo state is completely false and we have not received any such report from any quarter nor has the President directed the EFCC to furnish it with any detail as alleged in the said reports.
Also EFCC in a statement issued yesterday denied issuing any security report on Governor Ohakim .
“The Commission wishes to state that no such “Security report” was issued by it on Governor Ohakim and no such “report” was sent to any law enforcement agency within or outside Nigeria , with the intention to arrest or detain Governor Ohakim.
Further, EFCC checks with the law enforcement agencies mentioned do not bear out the stories of arrest and interrogation of the said Governor, either based on the spurious “Security” or other reports of the Commission.”
In a statement, the Imo State Liaison Officer in Abuja,Elvis Agukwe described the reports in some
Newspapers as the handwork of desperate politicians who he said have refused to accept their defeat by Ohakim in good faith and are bent on tarnishing the Governor’s hard earned image.
Agukwe rather challenged them ,” to come up with concrete evidence to back up their claims, they can visit the website of the Metropolitan Police and see if the Governor’s name is on it.
“Ohakim has become a brand name in politics that has prompted some desperate politicians to use every means in order to barstardize and rubbish his rising profile, the story is an old one which they had just rehashed to pull the Governor down” he added.
Specially, an Abuja based National Daily had alleged that the Imo state Governor was arrested in London and quizzed over allegations of laundering over $2.1 million.
The liaison officer pointed out that “contrary to the stories in some section of the media that the Governor was arrested with is aides, I am the one that saw him off at the airport and he travelled alone, he never travelled with any of his aides as alleged, he travelled on a purely investments drive and came back with his family.
“I want to challenge the authors of the so-called arrest of Ohakim in London to come up with verifiable evidence, how come the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] is not aware of the said arrest or any of the security agencies except the sponsors of the campaign of calumny?” he stated.
Agukwe maintained that “with the events of the recent past, it is a common fact that the Metropolitan Police would never release any Governor caught with such a huge amount of money. So I would want to state categorically that Governor Ikedi Ohakim was never arrested neither was any of his aides arrested for alleged money laundering in London or any other part of the world for that matter. We are investigating the source and would take appropriate action.
“If you know the way the Metropolitan police operates, there is no way they will arrest anybody without pasting the name on its website, when
the story was written earlier at the weekend no Governor was named. There are some few people who are not happy with the successes of the Governor and are determined to pull him down he was never arrested” he added.
Agukwe maintained that “ if you to the website of the London Metropolitan police they have all the names of those they have arrested, they don’t hide anything from anybody, so there is no way a serving Governor is caught with such a huge amount of money and they will keep quiet about it, he was never arrested, it is not a true story it is not correct.
EFCC’s reaction came on the heels of the statement by the Imo state government that the allegations of the arrest of Ohakim was purely political and the antics of desperate politicians who were bent on destroying the governor’s image.
According to Nwaja, “the report of the said arrest of Governor Ohakim of Imo state is completely false and we have not received any such report from any quarter nor has the President directed the EFCC to furnish it with any detail as alleged in the said reports.
Also EFCC in a statement issued yesterday denied issuing any security report on Governor Ohakim .
“The Commission wishes to state that no such “Security report” was issued by it on Governor Ohakim and no such “report” was sent to any law enforcement agency within or outside Nigeria , with the intention to arrest or detain Governor Ohakim.
Further, EFCC checks with the law enforcement agencies mentioned do not bear out the stories of arrest and interrogation of the said Governor, either based on the spurious “Security” or other reports of the Commission.”
In a statement, the Imo State Liaison Officer in Abuja,Elvis Agukwe described the reports in some
Newspapers as the handwork of desperate politicians who he said have refused to accept their defeat by Ohakim in good faith and are bent on tarnishing the Governor’s hard earned image.
Agukwe rather challenged them ,” to come up with concrete evidence to back up their claims, they can visit the website of the Metropolitan Police and see if the Governor’s name is on it.
“Ohakim has become a brand name in politics that has prompted some desperate politicians to use every means in order to barstardize and rubbish his rising profile, the story is an old one which they had just rehashed to pull the Governor down” he added.
Specially, an Abuja based National Daily had alleged that the Imo state Governor was arrested in London and quizzed over allegations of laundering over $2.1 million.
The liaison officer pointed out that “contrary to the stories in some section of the media that the Governor was arrested with is aides, I am the one that saw him off at the airport and he travelled alone, he never travelled with any of his aides as alleged, he travelled on a purely investments drive and came back with his family.
“I want to challenge the authors of the so-called arrest of Ohakim in London to come up with verifiable evidence, how come the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] is not aware of the said arrest or any of the security agencies except the sponsors of the campaign of calumny?” he stated.
Agukwe maintained that “with the events of the recent past, it is a common fact that the Metropolitan Police would never release any Governor caught with such a huge amount of money. So I would want to state categorically that Governor Ikedi Ohakim was never arrested neither was any of his aides arrested for alleged money laundering in London or any other part of the world for that matter. We are investigating the source and would take appropriate action.
“If you know the way the Metropolitan police operates, there is no way they will arrest anybody without pasting the name on its website, when
the story was written earlier at the weekend no Governor was named. There are some few people who are not happy with the successes of the Governor and are determined to pull him down he was never arrested” he added.
Agukwe maintained that “ if you to the website of the London Metropolitan police they have all the names of those they have arrested, they don’t hide anything from anybody, so there is no way a serving Governor is caught with such a huge amount of money and they will keep quiet about it, he was never arrested, it is not a true story it is not correct.
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Comments (1 posted):
I think the problem is our electoral process and how flawed the process is.
I would suggest that we look into the reformation of our electioneering process and probably start by degeneralising state govt elections.We should let states hold elections at different times.This would allow for joint monitoring and efficient back up control.
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