LAGOS — The former Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos on Thursday.
Obiano, who just handed over to the new Governor of Anambra State, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, has been on the anti-graft agency’s watch list for months.
He was arrested at about 8:30 pm on Thursday while on his way out of the country to Houston, Texas in the United States.
In November 2021, the EFCC announced that it has placed Willie Obiano on its watch list.
The agency also requested that the Nigeria Immigration Service should inform it anytime the governor is traveling out of the country from any point of the international airports, as well as other entry and exit points.
It is, however, not yet clear why the anti-graft agency placed the governor on a watch list.
Sources told Channels Television that the move was an indication that the agency may have been discreetly investigating the governor and possibly have intelligence that he was planning to escape after handing over power to his successor, Professor Charles Soludo, on March 16, 2022.
Former Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Don Adinuba, had, at the time, condemned the EFCC watch list reports, claiming that they were politically motivated.
“Governor Obiano has a whole four months to remain in office as the Anambra State chief executive,” Adinuba said. “Nobody in Nigeria can circumscribe his constitutionally conferred immunity which shields him from both criminal and civil prosecution.
“The EFCC went too far to announce in November that it is observing him. We are not aware of any state governor who had up to four months to be in office and the EFCC went on to sponsor media reports that he was being investigated.”
