The arrest of Innoson Motor Chief, Mr. Chukwuma got senate reacts by the EFCC.
“Yesterday I got a number of messages indicating that Mr. Innocent Chukwuma was arrested by the EFCC over a transaction between him and GTB,” Mr. Ekweremadu said. “This morning I made an effort and I spoke with him, his story is straightforward, he said he was at his house at 5:00 am Tuesday morning when he heard gunshots and he thought they were assassins and so he went into hiding after about two hours he saw some police and he thought that help had come, so he came out of his hiding and ran to the policeman who promptly arrested him. As he was trying to find out what was his offense, they told him when they get to the police station they will inform him of the offense. As at today, nobody has told him what the offense is.
“Any person who is arrested and detained should be informed reason for his arrest. As I speak Mr. Innoson Chukwuma is yet to be informed of what led to his arrest or detention but if you go through the media today, the story is that he is owing GTB. As a lawyer, I’m at a loss how a transaction between someone and his bank will inform the EFCC.”
“The story he told me is that he is not owing to the bank anything, he borrowed money from the bank which he has since repaid but the bank kept charging money and withdrawing it from his account. They set up an audit and the auditor came to a conclusion that they had deducted more than N500 million, he was insisting on 22 percent, the bank said they will pay 17 percent so that is where they had the disagreement and they now went to court and it gave judgement in its favour at the federal high court and the court of appeal and the matter is at the supreme court. The fact that matter is in court and it was a commercial transaction gives no room for the intervention of EFCC, I’d like to appeal to this Senate to ensure that Mr. Innocent Chukuwma is released promptly.”
In his contribution, Sam Anyanwu, Imo-PDP, questioned the Senate’s silence over alleged continued impunity of the EFCC.
“I want to ask a question. EFCC as it stands today, does it have a chairman? Because I knew in this chamber, the head of EFCC was rejected during screening because of poor performance and yet he has been there as chairman.
“There was a businessman from Imo State that was killed in EFCC custody. The body is still in the mortuary until today. These are the kind of things we are seeing in this country, why must we allow it to continue?
“We have been talking about promoting made in Nigeria goods. This man manufactures vehicles, he has over 5, 000 people in his employment, he has international partners. What are you projecting before them? That he is a criminal? If we as Senate allow this to continue, there is nothing else that will ever work.
See Senate Reacts To Arrest Of Innocent Chukwuma
