Posted by By ONUOHA UKEH on
Immediate past governor of Enugu State and a serving senator, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani was on Monday held by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja. He was arrested at about 5.42pm.
Immediate past governor of Enugu State and a serving senator, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani was on Monday held by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja. He was arrested at about 5.42pm.
Nnamani is the fourth former governor being held by the EFCC over their stewardship in government. Others are Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia State), Chief Joshua Dariye (Plateau State) and Alhaji Saminu Turaki, who is also a senator (Jigawa State).
Daily Sun gathered that Dr Nnamani was held when he went to the Abuja headquarters of the EFCC on Monday evening to find out why he was declared wanted that afternoon by the anti-graft commission. He had left the National Hospital, where he was receiving treatment, aborting his treatment and thereby raising anxiety over his health.
Earlier around 4.30pm, when Daily Sun spoke with Nnamani, after the news broke that the EFCC had declared him wanted, he had said that the action was strange as he was in touch with the EFCC, whose operatives knew where he was.
The ex-governor was said to have dressed up and drove to the office of the EFCC to find out why the commission declared him wanted when his whereabouts was not a secret. He was said to have been told that the bail earlier granted him had been cancelled and that he was being placed under arrest. He was consequently taken away to an unknown destination.
The arrest of the former governor brings to an end speculations about his fate on the investigation of his administration in Enugu State between 1999 and May 29, 2007 by the EFCC.
A section of the media had erroneously reported that Nnamani had been placed under arrest at the National Hospital, Abuja, where he was receiving treatment. He had said that the report was far from the truth.
The ex-governor had said, in statement issued on Sunday on his behalf by Mr. Igbonekwu Ogazimorah, that he was free and not under any form of arrest.
Nnamani had returned to the country last month, from the United States where he had gone on holiday and reported at the office of the EFCC just like his former colleagues. He was quizzed and allowed to go. He thereafter took the oath of office as a senator.
Confirming Nnamani's arrest, a statement from his office said he was taken into custody despite his state of health.
The statement said: "Nnamani, who had been on admission at the National Hospital, Abuja since last Thursday, was apprehended, taken to an unknown destination, without the benefit of taking his drugs with him.
"The former governor, who had duly informed the EFCC of his whereabouts, was earlier on chagrined by a late afternoon report on one of the television channels and circulated to all newsrooms, that he had been declared wanted by the EFCC. He had immediately contacted both the television station and EFCC.
"While the television station amended its report with an addition that he was in the country and whereabouts clearly known in EFCC quarters, the agency did not come up with any explanation, prompting the ex-governor to seek to meet with the officials in their headquarters, in Abuja.
"In what appears as a sudden twist of schedule, the operatives swiftly told Nnamani that they were to keep him there, ignoring the fact of a bail bond signed for the former governor and whose specific terms had been kept.
"The EFCC neither allowed Nnamani's friends and staff to come close nor understand what was going on.
"No doubt, Nnamani's eventual arrest is the remarkable feat which certain adversaries of the former governor very strenuously sought since July 2, when they went into a media binge to demonize the man as they sought over the years.
"We expect that the former governor would be charged to court in the next 48 hours as required by the constitution."