After four gruelling days in EFCC custody, fleeing ex-Anambra Governor, Obiano, gets reprieve

After cooling his heels in the cell of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for four days, the immediate past governor of Anambra, Mr Willie Obiano, on Monday got a reprieve as he was granted administrative bail.

Persecondnews.com reports that Obiano, whose wife engaged in a fisticuff on March 17 at the inauguration of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as the 6th Anambra governor, is still being held by EFCC pending the perfection of his bail conditions.

Obiano, who headed straight to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, immediately after the wife’s show of shame, was arrested on Thursday while trying to board a flight to Texas, United States.

In November 2021, the anti-graft agency had placed the two-term governor on its watchlist.

It wrote a letter to the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service dated November 15, 2021, requesting the officials to place the governor on a watchlist and inform it anytime he is travelling out of the country from any of the International airports and other points of entry and exit across the country.

Among the allegations against the  former governor are the misappropriation of N5 billion Sure-P fund and alleged withdrawal in cash of about N37 billion Security Vote.

Meanwhile, the EFCC has said that the former governor was “cooperating” with its officials to perfect his bail conditions.

EFCC Chairman, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, told newsmen in Abuja on Monday:” He has been granted bail and we are waiting for him to perfect his bail conditions he has been cooperating with us and everything is going on well.”

Reacting to newsmen question if the arrest was not politically motivated, Bawa said there was nothing political about Obiano’s arrest.

“There is nothing political about the investigation. You know what the EFCC stands for.

“We investigate crimes, we look at people that have committed crimes and we link it up together and then we go to court. That is all we have been doing and that is what we will continue to do.

“We have been accused of media trial. But we will continue to do our investigation professionally,” he said.