Musiliu Obanikoro, a former minister of state for defence, has reacted to Thursday’s arrest of his wife, Alhaja Moroophat, by the Nigeria’s secret police, the Department for State Security Services, DSS. The DSS, upon arresting Mrs. Obanikoro, handed her over to the EFCC for questioning.
Senator Obanikoro condemned, in its totality, the different versions of the investigation planted in the media by security agencies, in a statement signed by a media aide, Jonathan Eze.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, upon releasing Mrs. Obanikoro on Thursday, had also asked her to report to their office the next Friday and that she should come with their first daughter, Salewa, whom they want for questioning in connection with their investigation.
The statement, issued on Friday, July 15, 2016, told the Obanikoro family side of the story. The former minister called for a stop to maligning his wife, neither should facts which are supposed to be sacred distorted to skew investigation, thereby influencing public opinion negatively on a patriotic, hard-working and innocent woman, who is completely apolitical.
“We are saddened by the fact that the media was awash with false and conflicting information about the invitation of Senator Obanikoro’s wife. Ordinarily, we considered ignoring these concocted lies but for the sake of the discerning and right thinking public, hence the need to straighten matters,” the statement said.
“First, Alhaja Moroophat has always been in the country managing her businesses as against the lies that she sneaked in last week from the United States.
“Second, no documents were found in her possession and the lies that she was arrested while trying to evacuate documents were a fabrication and can only survive in their warped and distorted minds. It should also be noted that the officials only came to invite her for questioning and as against the phrase that she was whisked away; her driver actually drove her in her own car to the office of the DSS.
“Third, it was shamefully reported that the DSS were involved because there were so many armed policemen guiding her. This is another fabricated lie. The Obanikoros stopped enjoying police protection from the day he left office as minister and as a woman, who is above board in all her dealings, she does not need one.
“Finally, we are using this medium to call on the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to desist from persecuting an innocent woman, who has no dealings at all with either Sylva McNamara or MOB integrated that they are investigating.
“For emphasis, the innocent woman has a history of high blood pressure and heart related ailments and as such, should not be dragged into their biased and politicised investigations. We have absolute confidence in the judiciary and we hope to get justice in the course with the proviso that they obey the rule of law and avoid arbitrariness that we are seeing on daily basis.”
According to close source, after failing at their several attempts to secure an order to arrest Mrs. Obanikoro, the EFCC then involved the DSS in arresting her.
The source, who did not wish to be named, queried the involvement of the DSS in the matter and warned of the growing abuse of court processes and disregard for the rule of law by the present administration, adding that the country might pay dearly for it.
“The invitation of Salewa in addition to her mum simply betrays the real agenda behind the persecution of the former defence minister,” a family source told online newspaper, Signal.
“They are asking for Salewa’s passports before they can release her. Why are they terrorising Obanikoro’s family all for doing nothing? What is the wife’s offence? What is his daughter’s offence?
“Does this not show that they have no case and are simply terrorising innocent women all in a bid to punish Senator Obanikoro who they have been so desperate to nail through fabrications and concocted lies in their sponsored media platforms?”
