By Nwangwu Uba
Until the 2019 Presidential elections is organised by Mahmood Yakubu, a Professor and Chairman, and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and his team in the country next year and the winner declared without troubles, politicians may never have respite.
Those who may have been identified as a threat to the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, president Muhammadu re-election bid, particular, those who had pitched tent with the people’s Democratic party, PDP, would remain under siege of freezing their accounts.
Between May 29, 2015, and now, the ruling APC, was said to have frozen the bank accounts of people in the country who were found to have had dealings with the then PDP government as a way to cripple their business and weaken their financial support base of the party in the 2019 general elections.
Party sources told The Value News Magazine that the Ibrahim Magu led Economic and Financial Crimes, EFCC, acting on the instructions of Buhari may have placed many politicians and business men under close watch ahead of the elections. One of such people was Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the PDP. Another person was Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra state governor and Vice Presidential Candidate of the PDP and several others.
With the nod given to the parties by INEC to kick start their electioneering Campaigns and the large crowd that had thronged the PDP Campaign grounds as noticed in Sokoto, north west and Ibadan, south west geo-political regions may have emboldened the anti-graft agency to allegedly go ahead and freeze Obi’s accounts in the banks. This may have be done so that the multi- billionaire businessman would not be able to withdraw money from any bank to support Atiku and other financials in the funding of the party Campaigns to sell its manifestoes to the people.
A close source confirmed that his accounts in the country had been placed under surveillance and scrutiny by the EFCC and the Department of State Security, DSS, for some time now before some of them were finally frozen.
The Opposition PDP, appears unsettled by the alleged action of the government security agents to freeze some of Obi’s Accounts in the country threatening to fight back. Kola Ogbondyan, Director, Media and Publicity of the Atiku Presidential Campaigns Council, which many described as the PDP war council, disclosed that the freezing of the PDP Vice Presidential Candidate’s Accounts was expected.
Ogbondiyan noted that he has been facing all ”manner of threats and blackmail including threat to members of his family for accepting his nomination as the Vice Presidential Candidate of Atiku.The party spokesman stressed that that the agents of the APC government have gone to the extent of freezing, Obi, the Vice Presidential Candidate Accounts, because of his financial and towering influence both within and outside the country.
Signs that Obi would run into problem with the EFCC and other security agencies began when information leaked out that he own propertues in London, which had been vehemently denied by the PDP Vice Presidential Candidate. He was said to have told those care to listen that that he never at any time own bought a house in London while serving as the governor of Anambra state for eight years.
Valentine Obieyem, a close source to Obi, reportedly said that all the houses he had in London were bought in 2007, even before he became governor of Anambra, an indication that he was already a successful man before he became governor of the state.Obieyen had said that the houses were declared by him before he mounted the saddle as the governor of the state in 2007.
Those who had expected Obi to cry out to the President over the action of his security agents in freezing his Account without justification were said to have been disappointed. This is because” he was said to have taken the matter with ”philosophical calmness”.
Tony Orilade acting Head of Media and Publicity, EFCC, said ”nobody would cry wolf where none exists”. He was said to have issued a Statement with the approval of Magu the EFCC, boss, that that the Commission is a” law abiding agency and committed to ridding the country of economic and financial crimes”, stating that the agency would not ”relent in doing so”
The alleged freezing of the PDP Vice Presidential Candidate Accounts in some banks in the country is coming barely one week after he had a running battle with Ejike Mbaka, of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, who describedd him as a ”stingy person” for not making any financial pledge to support the ministry, noting that throughout his eight years in office in Anambra state , he never supported the Ministry.
Mbaka may have put it as a condition that the only way the PDP could win the 2019 Presidential election would depend on the level of support the Adoration Ministry gets from Obi, the former Anambra state governor and now Vice Presidential Candidate of the PDP, which people described as a ”Ministerial begging in the name of God”.
