Senator Ekweremadu falls ill while being questioned by EFCC and has to be rushed to hospital

DEPUTY senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu has reportedly fallen ill and been taken to hospital after being invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to answer queries about the number of properties he has amassed.

Over the last two days, Senator Ekweremadu is being questioned over his failure to explain how he came to own 22 properties in Nigeria, the US, UK and the United Arab Emirates. He is also facing charges of failing to declare the properties in his asset declaration form at the Code of Conduct Bureau.

In March, anti-graft officials asked an Abuja court to temporarily seize some properties including two houses in the UK belonging to Senator Ekweremadu. According to the Okoi Obono-Obla Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Senator Ekweremadu failed to declare of the said properties in his assets declaration forms dated June 1, 2007 and June 1, 2015.

Before then, in February, it had been revealed that Senator Ekweremadu owned two choice properties in the UK with a combined value of £3.73m.  According to the news outlet, UK land registry documents list the addresses of the properties as 52 Aylestone Avenue, London, NW6 7AB and Flat 4, Varsity Court, 44, Homer Street, London, W1H 4NW.

With the ongoing feud between the Nigerian legislature and executive heating up over the last week, anti-graft officials stepped up their pursuit of Senator Ekweremadu, which his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have described as a political witch hunt. They have accused President Muhammadu Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) of using the security agencies to try and silence any opposition to the government.

According to eyewitness accounts, Senator Ekweremadu fell ill during the questioning and was permitted by the EFCC to seek medical attention in hospital. At the resumption of the investigations, a medical team, will determine the fitness of the deputy senate president after reading the hospital's medical report.

One EFCC source said: “We were able to highlight additional 38 assets, added to the initial 22 on which he ought to give an explanation for.  The grilling started smoothly until he complained of discomfort and he was unable to continue to answer our questions.

"His sudden illness might have arise from high blood pressure. Since he needed urgent medical attention, we allowed him to go to the hospital of his choice for treatment.”

Reacting to what it described as Senator Ekweremadu’s witch-hunt by the EFCC, the PDP called on the international community to rein in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration before it is too late. Kola Ologbodiyan,  the PDP's publicity secretary, said this is only the newest in the series of attempts to destroy the senator politically in the run-up to the 2019 general elections.