An Abuja home of former President Goodluck Jonathan has been burgled, PREMIUM TIMES can confirm.
However,
in what appears a curious twist, the house was not burgled by known
thieves, but by police officers assigned to guard the house.
The
Nigeria Police have thus arrested three of its officers for stealing
items valued at several millions of naira from the Abuja residence of
the former president.
The items were alleged to have been stolen
by the officers from the residence located at No. 89, Fourth Avenue in
the Gwarimpa district of Abuja.
They include sets of furniture,
dozens of plasma television sets, refrigerators, air-conditioner units
and box-loads of clothes such as designer suits imprinted with the
former president’s name, male and female Ijaw traditional attires, lace
materials and bowler hats.
PREMIUM TIMES exclusively gathered
that the three mobile police officers conducted a systematic looting
over a period of three months beginning from around March 2016, until
they totally stripped the house of all movable items, which they sold
piecemeal to dealers at the Panteka second-hand materials market in
Tipper Garage, Gwarimpa.
Mr. Jonathan’s spokesperson,
Ikechukwu Eze, confirmed the theft to PREMIUM TIMES. He also confirmed
that the affected officers have been arrested.
According to a
security source involved in the investigation, by the time family
members of the former president were made aware of the looting early
this month, the house had been stripped bare. On getting wind of the
arrest of the policemen, two dealers who had been the main recipients of
the stolen items were said to have closed down their shops at Panteka
market and have since remained at large.
Mr. Jonathan had lived
in the house for about a year when he was vice president. His mother was
said to have assumed residence there after Mr. Jonathan moved to the
Aso Rock Villa upon becoming Acting President in 2010.
PREMIUM
TIMES could not ascertain when and the reason Mr. Jonathan’s mother
vacated the residence, leaving it under security guard of the police.
THE LOOTING
Our
investigations revealed that the looting was discovered when a
neighbour noticed “severe damage to the house” and called a member of
Mr. Jonathan’s family to ask whether the house was undergoing
renovation.
The former president was said to have personally gone
to inspect the property after which he reported the vandalization to
the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris. After a team of
officers dispatched to the scene confirmed the crime, Mr. Idris was said
to have ordered the arrest of the three police officers who were still
on guard duty at the residence. “They were arrested about two weeks ago,” the police source familiar with the development told this newspaper last Tuesday. A
trader at the Panteka market, who confessed to being close to one of
the fleeing buyers of the stolen items, was interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES
undercover reporter. According to the trader who declined to be
named, the police officers first brought some items to the market for
sale in early 2016.
“It all started sometimes around March 2016
when a mobile police sergeant came to Tipper Garage market and brought
some items for sale. He approached one of the wholesalers to buy them,
but the trader said he does not buy items from an unconfirmed owner,” he
said.
“He identified himself as Sergeant Musa and told the
trader that he was one of the security men guarding Mr. Jonathan’s
private residence at Gwarimpa. He took the trader to follow him to
confirm that he was not a thief who had come to sell off stolen
properties in the market
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