The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has granted reprieve to the immediate past Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano.
Obiano, who left office last Thursday after eight years in charge of the state, was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on his way out of the country that same night. He was eventually detained at the EFCC custody in Lagos.
But, according to the EFCC Chairman, Mallam Abdulrasheed Bawa, who spoke in Abuja at the fifth Annual General Assembly of the Network of National Anti-corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA), the former Governor was yet to fulfill bail conditions.
Responding to wild speculations that the former governor’s arrest was political, Bawa said the commission was only carrying out its mandate, which involves investigation of financial crimes.
He declined comments on when Obiano would be charged to court and the bail conditions stipulated by the EFCC.
‘There is nothing political about it. We are a penal institution. You know what the EFCC stands for. We investigate crimes, we look at people who have committed the crimes, we link it up together and of course we go to court. That is what we have been doing. That is all we will continue to do’, the anti-corruption commission head explained.
EFCC sources said that the former governor was preparing to board a flight to Houston, Texas, United States when he was picked up in Lagos last week. The next day, he was transferred to the Abuja headquarters of the commission for further questioning.
Some pro-Obiano groups had claimed that he was being “persecuted” because he was not a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). But the government had always countered charges like that with the fact that many APC governors and politically-exposed individuals had been held for interrogation and prosecution by the anti-corruption agencies.bi
