Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has granted bail to a former governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, earlier arrested by operatives of the anti-corruption agency on Thursday.
Sources familiar with the case told PremiumTimes that Orji was granted an administrative bail after facing hours of interrogation at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja at about 9 p.m. on Thursday.
EFCC said it has asked Orji to report at the EFCC headquarters again on Friday for the continuation of his interrogation.
The Senator, who had reportedly for long been on the commission’s watchlist, was on his way to London when he was picked up by EFCC operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on Thursday.
He was quizzed alongside his son, Chinedu, the current speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, who turned himself in this afternoon upon learning of the arrest of his father.
According to the EFCC, Orji is being interrogated over corrupt financial dealing while serving as Governor between 2007 and 2015.
Orji, a current senator, and his sons, Chinedu and Ogbonna, have for months been under EFCC investigation for alleged misappropriation of public funds and money laundering.
The ex-governor is alleged to have received N500 million monthly as security vote for eight years as governor of Abia between 2007 and 2015.
Other allegations against him include an alleged mismanagement of N2 billion Ecological Fund and mismanagement of Sure-P Funds.
EFCC added that sometime last year, Senator Orji approached the agency and requested for the release of his travel documents to enable him go to Dubai for medical treatment.
However, the EFCC noted, the serving Senator failed to return the travel document.
However, Orji denied being detained as he claimed that the EFCC officials only accosted him as he was on his way to London for a routine medical check up in London.
