There were information that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Tuesday, stormed and raided the Epe residence of immediate past Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode. Meanwhile, in a swift reaction, EFCC, through its official Facebook account, denied ever raiding Ambode’s house.
The news had went viral on social media inbthecearly hours of Tuesday, of the presence of EFCC at Ambode’s Epe, home town residence.
Recall that on August 6th, 2019, EFCC had frozen three bank accounts containing a total of N9.9bn linked to Ambode following Justice Chuka Obiozor of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, order to freeze amount belonging to the Lagos State Government.
The EFCC, in a Press statement by its spokesman, Tony Orilade, titled, ‘EFCC Secures Freezing Order on accounts Linked to Ex-Governor, Ambode over alleged N9.9bn Fraud’, said funds are domiciled variously in First City Monument Bank account number 5617984012; Access Bank account number 0060949275; and Zenith Bank account number 1011691254, respectively.
Justice Chuka Obiozor gave the order, following an ex parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The EFCC had prayed the court to freeze the accounts pending the conclusion of investigations and possible prosecution of Adewale Adesanya, the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Chief of Staff to former Governor, Ambode.
According to the statement, “EFCC has since early hours of today, been inundated with calls that operatives of the Commission raided the residence of the former governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode.
“We need to state for the records that the EFCC did not raid Ambode’s house. It is instructive that his administration, like other former governors is under investigation, since they no longer constitutionally enjoy immunity against prosecution.
“The Commission hereby states with high sense of responsibility that the operatives did not raid Ambode’s residence.
“Whatever the Commission is presently doing with regards to the investigation is in line with its mandate and the rule of law.
“We wish to inform the social media to be circumspect in the reportage of any news with regards to investigation activities of the Commission.
“As a tradition, the Commission does not carry out investigation on the pages of the newspapers or through the media. Our operations are always covert until at a time when we file charges in court.
“Therefore, the attempt to cast the commission in a bad light is unacceptable as the EFCC will never engage in illegal act. We remain committed to the war against corruption,” EFCC said.
