Obiano: EFCC confirms former Anambra Gov in custody

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has confirmed that the immediate-past governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, is in their custody and has been moved from Lagos to their facility in Abuja.

A source within the commission confirmed on Friday.

Obiano was arrested by the EFCC on Thursday night hours after his handover to the new Anambra Governor, Chukwuma Soludo.

He was arrested at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos while trying to board a flight to Houston, Texas in the United States.

The EFCC had announced last November that the former governor was on their watchlist and had asked the Nigeria Immigration Service to inform them, anytime he was travelling out of the country from any of the international airports.

Although the commission is yet to give reasons for detaining Obiano, there are feelers that it could be in connection with some petitions written against the former governor over the execution of some projects while he was governor.

Obiano had handed over to his successor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo at a low-key event in Awka, the state capital.

The event was, however, overshadowed by a brawl between the former governor’s wife, Ebele Obiano and the widow of the late Biafra warlord, Bianca Ojukwu.

Meanwhile, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the newly inaugurated governor of Anambra has called on the people of Anambra and Southeast to help make the region a liveable and prosperous place.

Soludo said this in his address soon after his inauguration at the Anambra Government House, Awka, on Thursday, March 17.

He said the insecurity in the region had led to sustained outflow of investment while Anambra alone lost about N19.6 billion every day ‘sit-at-home’ was declared and observed.

He said his accession to power in Anambra had given the platform to rally other leaders of the region for a peaceful homeland that would help the people optimise their potential under the Nigerian unitary federation.

According to Soludo, due to the protracted breakdown of law and order, businesses are relocating outside Igboland, with growing unemployment, and traders who used to come to shop in Onitsha, Aba, etc are going elsewhere.

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“By forcing our children, the future of Igboland, to stay at home instead of being in school, while even the critically sick people, including pregnant women, cannot go to hospital, we harm our future,” he said.