Obaigbena Released After Hours of Interrogation in EFCC Custody

 

After spending hours in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission answering questions, Publisher of ThisDay Newspapers, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, has been released on an administrative bail.

 

It was gathered that the EFCC’s Special Task Force investigating arms procurement scam under the former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, had been interrogating Obaigbena since Tuesday.

 

The publisher is being investigated by the commission over the N670m he allegedly collected from the office of a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).

 

According to a report by Punch, Obaigbena had allegedly agreed to refund the money he collected from Dasuki. The money was part of the $2.1bn meant for the purchase of arms for the military to prosecute the war against the Boko Haram sect.

 

He was said to have reported on Tuesday to one of the two EFCC teams involved in the ongoing arms probe at the Idiagbon House headquarters of the commission. It was also gathered that Obaigbena allegedly deployed part of the money he got from Dasuki to finance his United Kingdom-based television station, Arise TV.

 

The EFCC’s operative disclosed that N568, 360, 000 was allegedly given to the Arise Global Media Limited, the promoters of Arise TV.

 

A source revealed that the money was allegedly transferred from the account of General Hydrocarbon which received the funds from Dasuki on behalf of Obaigbena.

 

It was stated that the mandate from the first tranche of N150m indicated that it was paid for the purpose of an environmental security project while the balance was paid as an energy consulting fee.

 

It was gathered that the operatives were still probing to establish a link between the funds paid to General Hydrocarbon and the N120m paid to the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria.

 

“There is so far no established trail of funds moving from General Hydrocarbon’s account to the NPAN account which should have confirmed the claim by Nduka Obaigbena that he received money from the ONSA for onward delivery to NPAN members,” the source said.

 

It was stated that Obaigbena had already signed an undertaking that he would refund the money he collected from the ONSA in two weeks. The source said that the undertaking was a pre-condition for an administrative bail granted him on Wednesday.