Daily Trust

EFCC never raided, arrested Atiku’s sons

- By Ronald Mutum

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday said it did not raid the apartment or arrest the sons of the Presidenti­al Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, as being alleged in some quarters.

A statement by its spokespers­on Tony Orilade said: “it is in the news that we have been investigat­ing the former Abia governor, Senator Theodore Orji over alleged N27 Billion Naira money laundering.”

He said in the course of the investigat­ion, EFCC discovered that he laundered part of the money through his sons.

“We have been on the trail of some of the purchases made by his son including the cars the boys allegedly bought,” he said.

He said, “Last Friday, we traced one of the cars to a Nite Club in Abuja. In order not to cause panic, we waited until the business of the club was over and when the owner of the suspected car came to enter to take off, we arrested him and his friend who has a similar brand of car. That was about 5 am on Saturday, December 8, 2018.

“The two boys we arrested were Ogbonna Orji, 32, and Kelvin Ilonah. While Orji’s Car, a Range Rover is valued at about N100 million, Ilonah’s car also a Range Rover, is valued at about N35 million.

“In the course of further interrogat­ion, the two boys led us to their apartment, three flats, and documents retrieved from the apartment showed it was rented for N13 million each per annum.”

Orilade said another brandnew Prado Jeep, a 2017 model was recovered from the boys in the compound. The two boys in question gave useful informatio­n to the commission which is helping in our further investigat­ion.

The anti-graft agency said “we never went after Atiku’s sons neither were Atiku’s sons among the two boys arrested. There is no link whatsoever to Atiku.

“Only last week, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was alleged to have raised the alarm that the Commission blocked and or freeze the accounts of the vice- presidenti­al candidate of the PDP, Peter Obi.

“Again, this was another lie which we immediatel­y punctured as there was no truth in it whatsoever, to the accusation. Till now, only silence has prevailed from the camp of the accusers,” the EFCC statement said.

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