Details have emerged on how former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman was tracked down and arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Sources within the Commission told Punch that the anti-graft agency began to search for Mamman after a Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced him to 75 years imprisonment in absentia last week.
According to the sources, the former minister was eventually tracked through his phone and found in an apartment in the Rigasa area of Kaduna State.
The EFCC also arrested two persons alleged to have harboured the former minister while he was on the run.
“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 said.
The EFCC had earlier confirmed Mamman’s arrest during a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Chairman of the commission, Ola Olukoyede, said the former minister was arrested at about 3:30 a.m. in Kaduna.
Olukoyede described the arrest as a demonstration of the Federal Government’s resolve to combat corruption.
“About 14 to 15 months down the line, we secured a conviction on all 12 counts. But because the main defendant was not present, sentencing was shifted.
“On the 13th of this month, he was sentenced in absentia here. Since then, we have decided to activate our intelligence and surveillance operations, and we have been searching for him all over the place.
“I am happy to announce to Nigerians that at about 3:30 a.m. this morning, we arrested him somewhere in Kaduna,” he said.