•Searches for cash, other
items
•They came without search
warrant – Dikko’s relative
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
yesterday, raided the Abuja home of immediate past Comptroller-General of the
Nigeria Customs Service, Abdullahi Inde Dikko, in search of cash and other
suspected items. The former CGC is said to have presided over an
organisation, which is believed to have generated huge revenues but also made
the Federal Government to lose heavy revenues through import
duty waivers for top politicians and their cronies.
The EFCC
is said to be working on the allegation that the yearly revenue declared by the
NCS was grossly lower than what was actually collected while some of its top
officials were living far above their means. During his time, Dikko was always
commended for the revenues the customs raised.
It was
gathered that the suspicion of fund mismanagement and other forms of
wrongdoings that had short-changed the nation, were responsible for the
immediate sweep of the top echelon of the NSC by the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration and the appointment of a no-nonsense military officer, Col
Hameed Ali, retd, to clean up the mess at the top revenue-generating agency of
the Federal Government.
Although no specific
allegation has yet been levelled against Dikko, it was learned that the raid in
his house was a prelude to moving against him by the anti-corruption agency.
The EFCC, however, declined to speak up on the invasion of the house when Saturday Vanguard called its spokesman, Mr Wilson
Uwajaren around 7pm, yesterday.
Mr. Uwajaren said he had
no information on the development. Saturday Vanguard learned
that the search party made up of no fewer than seven tough operatives, stormed
Abdullahi Dikko’s home located on 6, Ahmed Musa Crescent, Jabi, at about 7 am
but did not meet their target at home. It was gathered that Dikko from the
same state of Katsina with President Buhari, who voluntarily retired from
office as soon as the president won his election, was out of the country at the
time the visitors invaded his home.
Competent
sources said that the commission was acting on a tip-off that a large amount of
cash had been stored in Dikko’s homes. It was learned that the operatives
had earlier in the week raided a mansion in the Maitama District of Abuja,
which they thought the huge cash was being kept but hit the rock and decided to
swoop on the Jabi residence of the former CGC.
It was
not clear if the raid yielded their expected result as at the time of
going to the press, but a reliable source said that not much was found at the
end of the search, which was concluded late in the evening, yesterday. The
abrupt search of the man’s house, took his children and other family members by
surprise, as some of them broke down and wept in the presence of the armed men.
Mohammed
Usman, a relative of Dikko, who was taken aback by the action of the
operatives, said it was alarming that the armed men could just break into the
house and search without any notice or presence of the owner. Usman said:
“From the information available to me, no search warrant was presented before
the commencement of the search. “As I speak to you, they are currently in my
uncle’s bedroom carrying out the search in his absence.”
Source: Vanguard
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