No, Nigerian ex-presidents Jonathan and Obasanjo are not under arrest on corruption claims

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on August 16, 2019 at 15:05
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Nigeria, Mayowa TIJANI

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Posts making the rounds on social media in Nigeria, especially via instant messaging service WhatsApp, claim that former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). An EFCC spokesman confirmed to AFP that this is false and that the agency has made no such arrests. There is no record of the agency ever arresting a former president.

One of the posts, which appear predominantly as a “breaking news” message on WhatsApp, claims the two former leaders were detained as part of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign. 

A screenshot taken on August 16, 2019 shows the false claim circulating on WhatsApp

“BUHARI GOVT HAS DONE IT AGAIN.......... EFCC ARRESTS OBASANJO AND FORMER PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN BOTH TO FACE TRIAL NEXT WEEK MONDAY,” part of the post reads.

The claim also appears on Facebook, including via a post which we’ve archived here. The post claims that Obasanjo was arrested at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport “on his way out of the country” and that Jonathan was detained at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport on arrival from a foreign trip.

We’ve archived some other versions of the same post here, here, here, and here. 

The posts allege that Obasanjo was arrested over the Halliburton bribery case, a corruption scandal dating back to the early 2000s -- you can read the background here. Jonathan was meanwhile said to have been arrested over a $2.1-billion arms deal scandal from during his time in power in 2014.

“The arrest of the two prominent politicians is due to President Mohammadu Buhari's zero tolerance for corruption and his determination to fight corruption not minding whose ox is gored,” the post reads.

The EFCC has never arrested an ex-president

AFP checked EFCC public records detailing the agency’s activities and found no information on either ex-president being arrested. EFCC spokesman Tony Orilade told AFP by email that he was “not aware of such arrests”. There is no record of a former Nigerian head of state ever being arrested by the EFCC since the agency was created in 2003. 

Credible local media also have not carried any reports on either of the former presidents being arrested.

Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo’s spokesman, told AFP by phone that “Baba”, as Obasanjo is fondly called, “is in his room right now”. He said the former president was not arrested as the claims suggest. Mails sent to Ikechukwu Eze, spokesman to former president Goodluck Jonathan, were not returned. But on August 14 Jonathan’s official Twitter account said that he was in South Korea’s capital Seoul for the International Leadership Conference.

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