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Reports from Abuja suggests that security operatives, on Wednesday evening, raided an Abuja house belonging to a brother-in-law to Nigeria’s former president Goodluck Jonathan.
Premium Times reports that the house besieged is located in Maitama, one of the enclaves of Nigeria’s rich in Abuja. The spokespersons for the headquarters and Abuja command of the police said they were not aware of the operation, but security sources confirmed that police officers in uniform carried out the raid.
According to our sources, the operatives searched all the rooms in the house. The house was allegedly bought for her brother by Patience Jonathan, who was said to be in Port Harcourt when the raid occurred on Wednesday.
Although Mrs. Jonathan has been having a running battle with the anti-graft agency, EFCC, over the ownership of a controversial $15 million, sources at the commission said the EFCC did not carry out the raid.
Earlier on their were speculations that the EFCC had raided the home of former President Goodluck Jonathan and whisked him away. Some posts on Facebook speculated that the EFCC had taken the ex-president to an unspecified location. More details have emerged of the search of the residence of a brother to Jonathan, although no agency has owned up to the search. Witnesses and security operatives told newsmen that the raid was conducted by police officers, police spokespersons said they were not aware of it.
A lawyer to Mrs Jonathan, Charles Ogbole, who was at the residence when the raid was conducted, told newsmen that ‘about 20 to 25’ police officers were at the Maitama house on Wednesday to carry out the raid.
According to Ogbole, a leader of the police team claimed they came on the order of the Inspector General of Police. “But immediately another man in mufti said the raid was ordered by the Attorney-General of the Federation. “That one (the man in mufti) was the one who recorded their activities and took inventory,” he added.
When contacted, Saliu Isa, the spokesperson for Attorney General Abubakar Malami, told newsmen he was not aware his principal ordered the raid on the house. “But I will find out,” he said. Providing more details, Ogbole said that while the raid was ongoing, Mrs. Jonathan spoke with the operatives through the house guard’s phone, querying their mission at her brother’s residence.
“I asked one of the policemen and he told me they were actually looking for a Judge’s house in that area which they could not locate with certainty. So he said they broke into the house (Jonathan’s in-law’s) unsure of who the owner was,” Mr. Ogbole claimed. He added that no search warrant was presented by the raid team.
Premium Times
