How EFCC hunted down ex-power minister Mamman

Details have emerged on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission tracked and arrested former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, in Kaduna State after weeks of surveillance and intelligence gathering. The EFCC also arrested two persons alleged to have harboured the former minister while he was on the run. Mamman was convicted on 12 counts of money laundering and fraud amounting to N33. 8bn linked to the diversion of funds from the Mambilla and Zungeru hydropower projects.

Sources within operatives spread their dragnet in search of Mamman immediately after a Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced him to 75 years imprisonment in absentia last week. from the sources, the former minister was eventually tracked through his phone and found in an apartment in the Rigasa area of Kaduna State.

“Immediately the judgment was delivered, we spread our dragnet in search of him following weeks of intensive surveillance and intelligence gathering, but we eventually tracked him with his phone and found him in an apartment in the Rigasa area of Kaduna. Two people who harboured him have also been arrested,” one of the sources showed. The EFCC had earlier confirmed Mamman’s arrest during a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.

The Chairman of the commission, Ola Olukoyede, showed the former minister was arrested at about 3:30 a. m. in Kaduna. Olukoyede described the arrest as a demonstration of the Nigerian government’s resolve to combat corruption.