The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released Atiku Abubakar’s son-in-law Babalele Abdullahi, who has been in EFCC custody over allegations of money laundering. In a bizarre sequence of events, the EFCC freed Abdullahi and arrested Tanimu Turaki, who had come to the Commission’s premises to sign bail papers for Abdullahi, who is the financial director of Atiku’s group of companies in Abuja.
Turaki, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), leading the defense team of Atiku and also deputy director-general of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization was invited by the anti-graft agency to sign bail documents for Abdullahi yesterday. He was then arrested and detained in the process. Turaki was reportedly arrested by EFCC operatives for no specific reasons, according to the PDP. He was however released Tuesday and the EFCC gave no reasons for his sudden release
Prior to his release, PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, accused Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of using federal powers to intimidate officials of the opposition party. PDP said Turaki’s arrest was a staged plan by Buhari and his cabal to intimidate their leaders by acting out the script written for them by ruling APC party and their agents in government.
Ologbondiyan in a statement said the arrest of Takuri was intended to scuttle PDP’s fight to reclaim their February 23, 2019 Presidential election victory in court. Ologbondiyan alleged that the PDP’s decision to challenge Buhari’s second term victory in court prompted the Turaki’s arrest.
“It is instructive to state that Tanimu Turaki was arrested and detained upon invitation by the EFCC to endorse a bail document for the Finance Director of Atiku Abubakar’s company, Babalele Abdullahi, who was arrested earlier by the commission over flimsy allegations,” Ologbondiyan said in a statement.
“Since the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the PDP expressed our unwavering determination to reclaim our victory at the tribunal, being armed with overwhelming evidence, our leaders have been subjected to escalated harassments, constant threats, blackmails, cajoling and contrivances by the APC to drop our legal option,” Ologbondiyan said.
He further warned the opposition party that no harassment or threat can stop them from taking back the mandate. “The PDP, however, states in clear terms that the APC and the Buhari Presidency are fighting a lost battle as no amount of harassment and threats will ever make the party to buckle in its determination to take back the mandate, in line with the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians.”