Obanikoro reacts to DSS raid on home, wife’s arrest

Former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro has reacted to Thursday’s arrest of his wife, Moroophat, by officials of the Department of State Security Service.

A statement by his media aide, Mr. Jonathan Eze, warned media houses not to malign his wife in whatever way, neither should facts which were supposed to be sacred distorted to skew investigation, thereby influencing public opinion negatively on a patriotic, hard-working and innocent woman, who was completely apolitical.

He said: “We are saddened by the fact that the media was awash with false and conflicting information about the invitation of Senator Obanikoro’s wife. Ordinarily, we considered ignoring these concocted lies but for the sake of the discerning and right thinking public, hence the need to straighten matters.

“First, Alhaja Moroophat has always been in the country managing her businesses as against the lies that she sneaked in last week from the United States.

“Second, No documents were found in her possession and the lies that she was arrested while trying to evacuate documents were a fabrication and can only survive in their warped and distorted minds. It should also be noted that the officials only came to invite her for questioning and as against the phrase that she was whisked away; her driver actually drove her in her own car to the office of the DSS.

“Third, it was shamefully reported that the DSS were involved because there were so many armed policemen guiding her. This is another fabricated lie. The Obanikoros stopped enjoying police protection from the day he left office as minister and as a woman, who is above board in all her dealings, she does not need one.

“Finally, we are using this medium to call on the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to desist from persecuting an innocent woman, who has no dealings at all with either Sylva McNamara or MOB integrated that they are investigating.

“For emphasis, the innocent woman has a history of High Blood Pressure and heart related ailments and as such, should not be dragged into their biased and politicised investigations. We have absolute confidence in the judiciary and we hope to get justice in the course with the proviso that they obey the rule of law and avoid arbitrariness that we are seeing on daily basis.”

Meanwhile, Obanikoro’s first daughter, Salewa, has been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

It was gathered that EFCC’s investigators had informed Mrs Obanikoro to appear with Salewa for questioning in connection with the ongoing investigation.