Obiano reacts as EFCC places him on watchlist

<p>The Anambra State Government has fumed at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission &lpar;EFCC&rpar; over what it describes as media trial of outgoing governor Willie Obiano&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The EFCC had earlier written a letter to the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service &lpar;NIS&rpar; requesting the immigration to place Governor Obiano on a watchlist and inform it anytime he is travelling out of the country from any of the international airports&comma; as well as other points of entry and exit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But according to Don Adinuba&comma; the Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment&comma; the EFCC is being used by politicians who lost the Anambra governorship election 2021 to Obiano’s All Progressives Grand Alliance &lpar;APGA&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a statement on Thursday titled&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;EFFC’s Inelegant Drama over Anambra Governor’&comma; the Abia commissioner described the move by the EFCC as politically-motivated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The statement read in part&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The EFCC knows full well that it is acting inelegantly in this instance&comma; and so has tried as much as possible not to make an official public statement on the alleged placing of Chief Obiano on the watch list&period; It furtively gave a section of the media the news report it wrote based on ostensibly its letter to the NIS on November 15&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Governor Obiano is out of the country currently&period; And he travelled through one of the country’s international airports&period; He did not disguise himself&comma; but rather left the country with his identity fully disclosed at the necessary immigration point&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The EFCC sounded more inelegant when it claimed in the sponsored press report that it received intelligence reports that the governor plans to &OpenCurlyQuote;flee’ from Nigeria once he hands over power next March 17 to the newly elected Anambra State governor&comma; Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo&period; Chief Obiano has never left any persons in doubt that he will relocate to his base in the United States once he finishes his tenure&period; As early as Wednesday&comma; March 4&comma; 2020&comma; he announced his decision to a meeting of the Anambra State Council of Elders&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;