Soni Daniel, Abuja

Former Kaduna State Senator and civil rights activist, Shehu Sani, will spend the New Year in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, over alleged extortion and name dropping.

The vociferous former lawmaker was reportedly arrested on Tuesday afternoon by operatives of the anti-graft agency and taken to its Jabi headquarters along the Abuja International Airport Road, Abuja, where he is expected to cool his feet until he is granted bail.

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A source in EFCC told Vanguard that the focal ex-Kaduna Central Senator was arrested for using the name of the Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Magu, to collect various sums of money from unsuspecting members of the public on the grounds that he was close to Magu and could help them to escape the agency’s scrutiny and punishments for economic and financial infractions.

In one of the cases, Shehu is accused of collecting the sum of $10,000 from a popular car dealer in the country with the assurance that he would help persuade the agency for beaming its searchlight on the company’s activities.

But while the EFCC did not initially want to move against the former lawmaker, his refusal to honour its numerous invitations or pick their calls for an interview, reportedly angered the agency, which on Tuesday stormed his home and arrested him for interrogation.

“The former Senator is with us as we speak and he is going to be with us even up to the New Year and we hope to grill him on various issues of interest to us, “an official of the anti-graft agency said on Tuesday.

Asked to disclose the exact amount reportedly taken from victims by the former lawmaker, the source declined to be specific; pointing out that the figure would be made known after the interrogation of the former Central Kaduna Senator.

Vanguard