UPDATE: We Can’t Yet Disclose Ex-Governor Obiano’s Offence, EFCC, Ex-First Lady Convicted Of Corruption

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says the offence for which the immediate past governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, was arrested is being kept under wraps because of an ongoing investigation.

Obiano was apprehended at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Thursday evening, hours after he left office and Prof Chuwkuma Soludo was sworn in as the new governor of the state.

The anti-graft agency had placed the former governor on its watch list since November last year.

The EFCC had in a letter to the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) dated November 15, 2021, requested the Service to place Obiano on watchlist and alert the agency anytime he is travelling out of the country via any International airports and other points of entry and exit.

The agency, however, did not state why the ex-governor was placed on watchlist.

Speaking with Daily Trust, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the anti-graft agency, said Obiano’s alleged offence was not disclosed after his arrest because it’s not time for the commission to do so.

He said, “We are not giving that (the offence) out at the moment. The matter is still under investigation. It is also not correct that he has been released. He is with the commission.”

Uwujaren was evasive when asked when Obiano would be released, saying, “Once he is released, you will get the information.”

SaharaReporters had on Thursday reported that Obiano was arrested while he was on his way to Houston, Texas in the United States.

The EFCC had last November how placed Obiano on a watchlist.

A court in Honduras convicted former first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla of corruption Thursday for the second time.

Bonilla was sentenced to 58 years in prison in September 2019 for embezzling more than $1 million in government money between 2010 and 2014, when her husband, Porfirio Lobo, was president.

The Supreme Court of Justice overturned her conviction six months later, citing procedural problems and ordering a new trial.

On Thursday, that second trial resulted in a conviction, too.

Honduras’ court system said via Twitter on Thursday that the court had unanimously convicted Bonilla of embezzlement and fraud. Her private secretary at the time, Saul Escobar, was also convicted Thursday.

The court ordered them jailed while awaiting sentencing, which was scheduled for Monday.

According to prosecutors, Bonilla took $480,000 from an account for the first lady’s office and deposited it in her personal account four days before Lobo left office. The defendants also allegedly took $650,000 from the office through checks written to nine front businesses between 2010 and 2014.

Source – Arkansas Online