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.”
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