Former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, on Saturday decried the arrest of his son-in-law, Alhaji Babalele Abdullahi, by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to Atiku, the EFCC officials invaded the Maitama residence of Abdullahi in two vehicles, arresting him in the process.
However, a statement by Atiku’s media adviser, Mr. Paul Ibe, noted that the EFCC officials were not given access into the house until Abdullahi’s lawyers arrived.
He said, “In a desperate move to have Atiku Abubakar concede and congratulate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, officials of EFCC at about 8.30am today (Saturday) invaded the Maitama residence of Babalele. They were, however, not given access into the house until his lawyers arrived.
“The EFCC agents numbering about two dozens came in two regular vehicles, an 18-seater Toyota bus (registration Abuja CS 522 RSH) and a Hilux van. They came with a search warrant to search the house and office of Babalele and found nothing incriminating.”
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“They then proceeded to his office at Oakland Centre in Maitama and found nothing incriminating there. However, they took away some documents of landed property. Not done, the EFCC officials stormed his Wuse residence where they again found nothing incriminating after the search.”
“Afterwards, Babalele was taken away to the EFCC office in Wuse to make a statement alongside Mr. Lawan Ayuba. It was gathered that the petition relied upon to invade the residence and office of Babalele was authored by a brother of the wife of President Buhari.
The statement added that as a law-abiding citizen, Atiku recognised the constitutional role of the EFCC and other agencies of the government to carry out investigations, but will not be intimidated by any attempt to blackmail him into mortgaging his mandate.
Atiku assured Nigerians that under no circumstance will he mortgage the mandate of Nigerians freely expressed on February 23.