The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has arrested Mr. Azibaola Robert, a cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan in a desperate partisan attempt to implicate the immediate past president of Nigeria in graft.
Robert, who is the managing director and Kakatar Engineering Limited was arrested on March 17, 2016 along with his wife and executive director when they honoured an invitation by the EFCC which is acting on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari. Since their arrest, Robert and his wife have been denied access to their lawyer and their family.
According to a source familiar with the situation, once Robert arrived the EFCC office, he was immediately taken into detention. He was not interrogated or was he told why he was being held by the anti-graft commission.
“He [Robert] is being held illegally and in solitary confinement by the EFCC,” a family source, who did not wish to be named told The Trent. “He has not been charged for any crime. They have denied him access to his lawyer. This is two weeks that he had been held for no reason. This is a calculated attempt to break him with the hope of implicating Dr. Jonathan.”
Buhari’s One Year Diversionary Tactic
According to another source, Azibaola Robert’s arrest is a frantic exercise in the renewed efforts by the EFCC to arrest former President Goodluck Jonathan on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Last month, a presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina revealed plans by the Buhari-led presidency to implicate former President Jonathan in the on-going corruption campaign by the government. He said on Channels TV that Buhari will “not spare” Jonathan in the fight against corruption.
Following that media statement by Buhari’s spokesman, the EFCC has applied a renewed vigour in its hunt for anything that would implicate the ex-president.
“Robert’s arrest is one more step in an unproductive hunt for investigation into alleged financial irregularities linked to the former National Security Adviser,” our source told our reporter.
“The EFCC has been rounding up relatives of former President Jonathan and anybody who had dealings with him. They are illegally freezing accounts of these people, even salary accounts and their spouses accounts, even accounts that don’t hold any significant amounts of money.
“The are trying all they can to create a case against Jonathan in order to implicate him. The Metuh angle failed, they had to manufacture a story of an eaten statement to save face.
“Sources tell us that the EFCC has been ordered by Buhari to arrest Jonathan before his one year in office in May. But that they must create ‘strong’ evidence against the former president to prevent the international and domestic backlash that such a move would bring to the Nigerian government.
“So the EFCC is frantically using illegal tactics to break associates of the former president with a view of causing them to give a statement against Jonathan.
“Arresting Barrister Azibaola Robert is just one attempt to victimise close associates and kinsmen of Jonathan. He is the latest victim of this desperate witchhunt by the EFCC. He is Jonathan’s nephew and believed to be his closest confidant,” our source who pleaded anonymity revealed. Our family source says that Roberts is a cousin of the president but regarded as a nephew due to their close relationship.
On February 9, 2016, operatives of Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Security Services (DSS) raided the Maitama residence of His Majesty, King Turner another kinsman of the former president and carted away some documents, including insignificant amount of dollars, pound sterling, naira and rupees. Although the DSS is yet to disclose why the raid happened while the first-class king was away in Yenagoa in Bayelsa State, observers believe that the raid was connected with the monarch’s closeness with former President Goodluck Jonathan as is the case of Robert.
Family Intimidated to Silence
A brother of Mr. Robert who confirmed the arrest to The Trent also says that the EFCC is intimidating the family of its victims to remain silent about the violation of his brother’s rights.
The brother, who did not wish to be named out of fear of persecution by the Buhari government, expressed fears over the well-being of Robert. “We have been denied access to him. Even his lawyer has not been allowed to see him. This is a dictatorship,” he said, visibly shaken.
He maintained that Robert had not breached any laws and his company, Mangroovtech, which is now Kakatar CE Limited got all its contracts through competitive bidding and nothing more.
He then urged the EFCC to either grant his brother bail and immediately release him and the executive director of the firm or charge them to court of competent jurisdiction. In the moment he also asks for the immediate access of family members, lawyers and the medical attention they may require.
He added that the constitution of Nigeria protects his brother and Mr. Dakoru Atukpa, an executive director of his company, Oneplus Holdings from arbitrary arrest and being kept incommunicado for weeks without being charged to court or granted bail.
State Sponsored Terrorism
Azibaola Robert is a prominent entrepreneur from the Niger Delta with vast business interests in the area of construction and engineering. Two of his companies, Kakatar and Oneplus Holdings were mentioned among 300 other companies and individuals spread across the country by the presidential committee probing the contracts issued by the Office of the National Security Officer during Jonathan’s administration.
Dasuki, a former NSA who served under President Jonathan has been held illegally by the DSS despite three court orders granting him bail.
Buhari had gone on national television and revealed that Dasuki was being held under his orders because “people like Nnamdi Kanu and Dasuki don’t deserve bail”.
