The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested a former Military Administrator of Kaduna State, Brig.-Gen. Jafaru Isah (retd.), in connection with the ongoing investigation into the $2.1bn arms procurement scam.
The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed the arrest and detention of the former military governor to one of our correspondents in Abuja on the telephone on Thursday.
Isah, a close associate of President Muhammadu Buhari, was the governorship candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change in Kano State in 2011.
CPC was founded by Buhari to actualise his bid for the Presidency in the 2011 general elections.
The party asked a son of the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Mohammed, to step down for Isah in the party’s governorship contest.
Isah is the first chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress to be arrested by the EFCC since the Buhari administration started investigation into the $2.1bn arms procurement funds under the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
He was a member of the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee, constituted by Buhari to coordinate the handing over notes by the immediate past administration before the President was inaugurated on May 29, 2015.
The retired general is also believed to be close to a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).
Confirming the arrest of Isah, the EFCC spokesman said, “It is true that the man is with us. That is the much I can tell you.”
The EFCC spokesman did not give details of the arrest.
It was, however, gathered that Isah was picked up by operatives of the commission in Abuja on Wednesday night and detained overnight to respond to issues linking him to the $2.1bn arms purchase fund.
It was learnt that the former MILAD’s arrest might not be unconnected with a “$5m gift” he allegedly received from the former NSA.
A top EFCC source, who confided in The PUNCH, said Isah was invited last week, but failed to honour the invitation of the anti-graft agency.
The source added that the commission had begun quizzing the former military administrator on the possibility that the money might have been given to him by Dasuki from the $2.1bn arms fund.
The source added that nothing had been established, saying Isah’s arrest was to “listen to his own side of the story.”
The source added, “He was invited last week, but he did not honour the EFCC’s invitation. He is being quizzed over the $5m he was alleged to have received from the former NSA. The former military administrator was arrested because he did not honour the invitation of the commission.”
The Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, had said, during a meeting with online media managers on Wednesday, that more influential Nigerians would soon be arrested.
Magu had debunked the insinuations that the arrests made so far in the ongoing campaign against corruption were selective, targeting the Peoples Democratic Party leaders and leaving their counterparts in the ruling All Progressives Congress.
