EFCC arrests Ike Uche Secondus, Ex-PDP Chairman

THE Economic and Fi­nancial Crimes Commis­sion, (EFCC) has arrested another senior member of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) National Working Committee, Uche Secondus.
Secondus, deputy na­tional chairman of the party, was allegedly ar­rested on Tuesday by the anti-corruption agency.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, is currently facing trial over his al­leged involvement in the diversion of public funds meant for arms purchase into the campaign fund of the party’s presidential candidate in the last gen­eral elections, Dr Good­luck Jonathan.

Daily Sun investigation indicated that Secondus, who, until last week, was the acting national chair­man of the party, was ar­rested by the EFCC as part of its ongoing inves­tigation of Mr. Jide Omo­kare, chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited.
Omokore is being in­vestigated by the anti-corruption agency over multi-billion oil swap deals between his firm and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Omokare’s company was one of those accused of lifting crude oil worth billions of dollars, but only remitted a fraction of its worth to government coffers.
It could not be ascer­tained if Secondus was a beneficiary of the shady crude oil swaps but a PDP source disclosed to a Daily Sun that the party’s deputy national chairman was asked to offer ex­planations on campaign buses donated to the erstwhile ruling party by Omokare.
Omokore is an alleged crony of the former min­ister of Petroleum Re­sources, Mrs. Deziani Allison-Madueke.

EFCC operatives were said to be probing the source of the funds used to purchase the vehicles, some of which were al­legedly meant for party’s officials.
Omokore’s company was rated as one of the highest beneficiaries of the former minister’s con­tract approvals.
However, another source confirmed that the PDP chieftain was being interrogated not only in connection with the vehi­cles donated to the party, but, also, “other relevant issues”.

The arrest did not go down well with PDP. The National Working Com­mittee of the party de­scribed the arrest as part of an orchestrated plot by the All Progressives Con­gress (APC)-led Federal Government to clamp­down on the main opposi­tion party in the name of anti-corruption crusade.

In a statement by its national Legal Adviser, Victor Kwom, the party further alleged that a plan was in the offing by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to arrest Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Senate Minority Leader, God­swill Akpabio and other leaders of the party on imaginary charges.
“The party alerts the nation that the arrest and detention of Secondus by the EFCC is part of the grand script to decimate the opposition.

“We are also aware that plans have been per­fected to arrest and detain Ekweremadu, Akpabio and other leaders of the party on imaginary charg­es.

“Indeed, intelligence available to the party shows that the federal government, using its various agencies, is bent on destroying any oppo­sition to the ruling party as all indications show that government is more interested in humiliating the PDP than fighting cor­ruption.

“Finally, we state that this war on the PDP and its leaders has, indeed, gone too far. It has now become a mockery of democratic practice.”