The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday night released Willie Obiano, former governor of Anambra state, on bail.
Mr. Obiano’s passport was withheld as part of the bail conditions.
The former governor was arrested last week at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos, when he was about to board a flight to Houston, United States.
The arrest was said to have taken place around 8:30pm last Thursday, hours after he stepped down as governor and thus lost his immunity from arrest and prosecution.
Obiano, who had been on the EFCC watch list for some time, was arrested on corruption charges.
“Obiano was arrested for alleged embezzlement of public funds, including N5 billion Sure-P and N37 billion security votes which were withdrawn in cash. Allegedly, some of the funds were also diverted to finance political activities in the state,” EFCC spokesman Mr. Uwujaren told the Punch newspaper.
Both the EFCC spokesman and the commission’s chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, declined to provide further details.
“I don’t know what update they want me to give, because they’ve been accusing us of lawsuits in the media, and they want me to say we’re doing this and that. No, we (EFCC) would not do that. We would continue to do our investigation professionally as we have been doing,” Bawa told reporters in Abuja.
A 12-second video of Mr. Obiano in EFCC custody also went viral and caused controversy. In the video, he was dressed in shorts and a white shirt, drinking water from a bottle in a locked room believed to be in EFCC custody.
The video sparked a wide range of opinion with many Nigerians denouncing it and demanding an investigation into how it was taken and leaked from the EFCC office.
The EFCC said it has identified the officer responsible for the act and that the officer is currently subject to appropriate disciplinary action.
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Since last year, the EFCC had placed the former governor on its watch list.
PREMIUM TIMES reported in November of last year that the EFCC had in a letter to the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) dated November 15, 2021, requested the service to place the governor on a watch list and inform him every time he travels out of the country from any of the international airports and other points of entry and exit.
Chiamaka Okafor is a reporter for Premium Times in collaboration with report to the world that connects local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on hidden topics around the world.