Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has promised Nigerians that he would not allow himself to be threatened from challenging the results of the February, 23 presidential elections in court.
Atiku said this on Twitter, following the invasion and arrest of Alhaji Babalele Abdullahi, his son in-law, who is also the finance director of his group of companies in Abuja on Saturday, 2 March, 2019.
According to his tweet: “My son in-law and lawyer have been detained, one for 3 weeks and the other recently. They are paying the price for supporting me. I urge those now persecuting them to remember that a government’s mandate is to pursue peace and justice for all, and not just those who support them.”
However, Paul Ibe, the media adviser of Atiku said the arrest was a desperate move to have the former Vice President concede and congratulate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
“The EFCC agents numbering about two dozen came in 2 regular vehicles, an 18-seater Toyota bus (registration Abuja CS 522 RSH) and a hilux van. They came with a search warrant to search the house and office of Babalele and found nothing incriminating. They then proceeded to his office at Oakland Centre in Maitama and found nothing incriminating there. However, they took away some documents of landed property. Not done, the EFCC officials stormed his Wuse residence where they again found nothing incriminating after the search,” Mr Ibe noted in a statement.
He added Babalele was taken away to the EFCC office in Wuse to make a statement alongside Mr. Lawan Ayuba.
“It was gathered that the petition relied upon to invade the residence and office of Babalele was authored by a brother of the wife of President Buhari. As a law abiding citizen, Atiku Abubakar recognizes the constitutional role of the EFCC and indeed any other agency of the government to carry out investigations, but will not be cowed by any attempt to blackmail him into mortgaging his mandate,” he said.
A top official of the EFCC declined comment on the arrest. The spokesperson of the commission also didn’t respond to numerous phone calls and message sent to him on Saturday.
