Dikko: EFCC lay siege at the airports

Federal Government may have placed security agents at the nation’s airports and borders on red alert for the embattled former Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Alhaji Abdulalahi Dikko Nde.
The alert was to place former CG under arrest as soon as he is sighted.
It was learnt that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had trailed the ex-customs boss to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
On Friday, at about 10am, EFCC operatives in two buses had stormed Dikko’s residence at Jabi in Abuja and conducted a thorough search. Sources within the anti-graft agency said the search took several hours and only ended at about dusk. However, the agents did not meet Dikko at home.
The EFCC was reported to be looking for huge amounts of money, in dollars, believed to be stashed in a residential building owned by the former customs chief. It was not clear whether the EFCC had found anything incriminating in Dikko’s residence.
On Saturday, the EFCC had relaxed the siege on the residence of the former Comptroller General of Customs. But a senior official of the commission on Saturday said the EFCC had learnt that Dikko had travelled to Dubai. He said that the former CG of customs would be arrested on his arrival back into the country as security agents at airports had been alerted to do so.
The source did not give the reason for Dikko’s trip to Dubai. He also refused to speak on the specifics of the investigation or the reason for the high-profile raid. It was also gathered that a high-powered delegation of top operatives of the commission was billed to travel outside the country for a mission connected with the ongoing investigation.
The source said, “The commission has information that the man is in Dubai. I can’t say precisely why he is in the UAE; you know that most of our leaders have one problem or the other, medically, which makes them travel out. But we have informed airport authorities in Lagos and Abuja to pick him up as soon as he arrives.
Meanwhile a civil society group, the Concerned Citizens for Constitutional Democracy has condemned the invasion of the residence of a former Comptroller General of Customs, Abdulahi Dikko by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The CCCD said this is a new dimension in the unleashing of state apparatus against perceived opponents warning that the country is gradually sliding into a dictatorial system of government with the rising wave of arrest of perceived opposition members and the flagrant neglect of rule of law under the guise of fighting corruption.
The statement, signed by CCCD’s National President, Anthony Kolawole, said it was apparent that the siege laid on Dikko’s house by the EFCC was for evidence fishing.
Kolawole said Nigerians would expect that the EFCC would have carried out its investigation and would have facts and credible evidence to work with and not invade the residence of alleged suspects who have not been invited for any questioning.
The group said while it is in support of the anti-corruption war of the current administration, Nigerians expects that it would be done under the ambit of the law.
He said members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are now massively defecting to the All Progressives Congress for fear of being harassed.
He said, “It is on record that the former Comptroller General of Customs was the one who fully opened the nation’s eyes to the potentials for increasing revenue generation from the organisation and should therefore not be treated like an insurgent.


 

 

 

 

Check the Nigerian Pilot newspaper for the full story.

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