The family of Eric Ocheme Odoh, a former aide to the immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, raised the alarm over what they termed as political persecution and harassment of the family by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission....CONTINUE READING
The accusation was contained in a statement issued by the family’s lawyer in Makurdi after operatives of the EFCC stormed the residence of the Odohs in the Benue State capital.
The EFCC had on February 11, in a post shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), and signed by the agency’s head of media and publicity, Dele Oyewale, declared Odoh, along with Margaret Emefiele, Anita Omoile, and Jonathan Omoile, wanted for “allegedly conspiring” with Emefiele “to convert huge sums of money belonging to the Federal Government of Nigeria” and for “obtaining money by false pretences,” among other accusations.
The Odoh family lawyer, Barrister Abang, claimed that the EFCC operatives broke into the Odoh premises without identification and “beat up the security guard and one other worker who were in the compound.” He added that the two people allegedly beaten up by the operatives “are now in the hospital receiving treatment for nothing more than asking them who they were when they arrived.”
Abang also accused the EFCC operatives of making death threats against the family, and threatening to go to Owerri, the Imo State capital, to harass Odoh’s father-in-law.
The lawyer said that the EFCC personnel also marked all property they could link to the family, including the house belonging to Odoh’s mother which, according to the statement, was inherited by Odoh’s widowed mother and which had not been improved upon or received a facelift since Odoh became an aide of Emefiele.
The lawyer wondered how the EFCC could be acting in such Gestapo manner when from everything they have said and produced there is nothing directly linking Odoh to any of the crimes the EFCC has alleged against him, adding that Odoh’s “only crime is that he worked for Emefiele, and I believe that is not a crime.”
The lawyer called on President Bola Tinubu to direct the EFCC Chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyede, to follow the law at all times as the family believes that Odoh is in mortal danger following death threats the lawyer claimed were made by the EFCC operatives during the raid on the Odoh residence.
