Following the news which went viral of a lawmaker, Sunday Karim, a Peoples Democratic Party member representing Kogi State, who was barred from traveling out of the country, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has opened up on the reason behind its move.
The EFCC explaining the reason behind the move noted that the House of Representative member was denied access to travel out of the country because of his alleged connection to the arms procurement scandal.
Mr. Karim, explaining his ordeal with the men of the Department of States Security, DSS, said he was stopped on Thursday by the security operatives as he was trying to clear Immigration.
He further noted that his international passport was seized immediately and his luggage ransacked.
The EFCC however noted through its spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, that it had earlier warned the lawmaker against traveling out of the country adding that he had been elusive for weeks.
“We’ve been looking for him since then but we couldn’t find him.
“So we had to put his name on the watch list.
“Mr. Karim became a person of interest because he allegedly received up to N200 million through a company linked to him.
“The firm, Atlantic Drilling Fluids, allegedly received the funds from Sylvan MacNamara, a company linked to the sons of a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro,” he added.
The EFCC spokesman further revealed that the lawmaker appeared before the anti-graft agency on Friday afternoon and has been allowed to return home on the condition that he would return on Monday.