EFCC to question Ekweremadu's wife after it emerges he now owns a total of 62 properties

ECONOMIC and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) officials are to grill the wife of deputy senate president senator Ike Ekweremadu as part of their ongoing investigation into the 60 properties he is said to have acquired using public funds.

Last week, Senator Ekweremadu was questioned over his failure to explain how he came to own 22 properties in Nigeria, the US, UK and the United Arab Emirates. As investigations began, it appeared that the total number of properties he owned added up to about 60 and he is also facing charges of failing to declare them 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.

So far, Senator Ekweremadu has not been formally charged and he was said to be feeling ill due to the intense grilling he received, so the EFCC gave him leave to go and see a doctor of his choice. Senator Ekweremadu was discharged from hospital on Saturday and his interrogation will now resume.

One EFCC source said: “Our detectives need to interrogate Ekweremadu’s wife in relation to the activities of a suspected slush company. We may quiz her any moment from now and we told the deputy president of the senate why we require the attention of his wife too.

“We have linked another property to Ekweremadu, bringing the assets to 62. We are digging more and contrary to what his media aide is saying, the deputy president of the senate is well informed of issues isolated for him to clear."

In February this year, it had been revealed that Senator Ekweremadu owned two choice properties in the UK with a combined value of £3.73m.  According to a 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.