EFCC protests as court grants order permitting ex-governor Obiano to travel abroad

Willie Obiano

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has sent a petition against a judge handling a suit over the seizure of the passport of Willie Obiano, the immediate-past governor of Anambra State, who is under the commission’s investigations.

Disclosing this in a statement on Saturday, the anti-graft agency questioned the impartiality of Hyeladzira Nganjiwa of the Federal High Court in Awka, Anambra State, in issuing an order permitting the former governor to travel abroad in March.

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The commission said in the statement by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, that it had petitioned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to seek Mr Nganjiwa’s withdrawal from the case.

Mr Obiano who was placed on EFCC’s watch list, last year, was arrested at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos, few hours after he handed over as governor on March 17.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Obiano who spent six nights in EFCC custody, was trying to board a flight to Houston in the U.S when he was arrested.

The commission released him on March 23 with his passport seized from him as part of the bail conditions granted him.

But his probe over money laundering which he allegedly committed while in office between 2014 and 2022 continues, EFCC said on Saturday.

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It turned out that Mr Obiano had obtained an order from Mr Nganjiwa to embark on a foreign trip by the time he was arrested at the Lagos airport few hours after his successor, Governor Charles Soludo, on March 17.

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