We Raided Orji Son’s Apartment, Not Atiku’s — EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission on Monday described the
allegations that its operatives raided the Abuja home of Atiku
Abubakar’s sons, as nothing but lies.

The EFCC said in a series
of tweets that detectives only searched the house where the son of a
former Governor of Abia State, Senator Theodore Orji, resides.

Atiku’s two children, Mustapha and Aliyu, live in the same compound as Orji’s son

.

But
the camp of the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party,
Abubakar Atiku, on Monday described the raid by the operatives of the
EFCC on his sons’ apartment in a building at Maitama, Abuja as an act of
intimidation against him.

Atiku who spoke through the Head,
the Atiku Media Office, Mr. Paul Ibe, in an interview with one of our
correspondents, said EFCC conducted the search on the apartment where
Aliyu and Mustapha live on Saturday.

Ibe added that they found nothing incriminating on Atiku’s sons.

According
to him, the search was an act of intimidation on Atiku as, according to
him, officials of the Muhammadu Buhari government perceived the PDP
presidential candidate as their ‘tormentor-in-chief.’

Ibe said,
“After having arrested the son of Theodore Orji, they asked him to lead
them to the residence of Atiku’s children. He said he did not know them.
The EFCC searched the house.

According to the EFCC, Orji’s son,
Ogbonna, and his friend, Kelvin Ilonah, were arrested as part of
investigations into the ex governor, who is alleged to have embezzled
billions of naira during his eight-year tenure as governor.

The
EFCC said, “This is nothing but another tales by moonlight. It is in
the news that we have been investigating the former Abia State governor,
Senator Theodore Orji, over alleged N27bn laundering. In the course of
investigation, we 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 sons, including the cars the boys allegedly bought.

“Last
Friday, we traced one of the cars to a night 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 take off, we arrested
him and his friend who has a similar brand of car. That was about 5am 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 N100m, Ilonah’s car, also a Range Rover, is valued at
about N35m.

“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 N13m each per annum.

“Another
brand new Prado, 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 further investigation.”

The
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement
described the raid as unleashing of violence on Atiku’s sons by what he
called the Buhari Presidency-controlled EFCC.

He added that the raid was vicious, outrageous, dirty and reprehensible.

PDP spreading fake news, says Presidency

Meanwhile,
the Presidency has dismissed as untrue the report that President
Muhammadu Buhari’s administration ordered a raid on the home of the sons
of Atiku.

It also described as “fake news”, another report that
the bank accounts of his running mate, Peter Obi, and those of his
family members were frozen.

In a statement by the Senior
Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba
Shehu, the Presidency urged Nigerians to ignore the PDP, which it
claimed was now known for spreading fake news.

The Presidency stated,

“The
story about the raid ‘ordered by Buhari-led government ‘on the home of
PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s sons and the fairy tale on
the alleged blockage of the bank accounts of the running mate, Peter Obi
and his family are both untrue, and should be dismissed as just another
manifestation of the PDP’s growing expertise in fake news.

“Nigerians
must be becoming wary by now, of a political party with absolutely
nothing to offer in the coming elections and has instead, transformed
into a knight in shining armour, slaying the truth.

“In this so-called transformation, the PDP has changed into nothing but to a ceaselessly flowing stream of fake news.

“It is impossible to find in Nigeria today, anyone propagating fake news more than the PDP.

“Our advice to Nigerians is: ignore them.”