Was Reuben Abati Arrested For N500m Dasuki Gate?
Twitter user @AbiolaYaqub said Thursday that Dr. Reuben Abati, host of the Arise News Morning Show and former special media advisor to former President Goodluck Jonathan,…
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According to the Twitter user, the funds were paid to Abati through the office of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki.
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Twitter user @AbiolaYaqub on Thursday tweeted an image of three people, including Abati and former Minister of State for Defense Musiliu Obanikoro, saying: “This is Reuben Abati of Arise TV in EFCC custody for raising 500 million naira from the Dasuki arms funds deal. Today, the same Abati works with Nduka Obaigbena, owner of Arise TV, created with money destined to fight the insurgency, but he complains about insecurity”.
The image has generated around 1,500 likes, more than 1,000 quote tweets, and retweets.
Claim 1: Image of Abati in custody of the EFCC
The Daily Trust submitted the image posted by @AbiolaYaqub and found that the image was cropped as the full image comprised a group of five people, including a former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode.
Although Google’s reverse image search was unable to determine the exact location where the image was taken; whether at an EFCC facility or not, as it first appeared on the internet, the Daily Trust can confirm that all the people in the full image at the time it was taken were members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
Claim 2: Reuben Abati collected N500m from the NSA
Checks carried out by the Daily Trust revealed that in October 2016, the EFCC arrested Abati and Bala Mohammed, a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, who is now Governor of Bauchi State.
The anti-corruption agency later revealed that Abati received N50 million from the embattled former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
In addition, Abati reportedly told investigators that he spent the N50m on media relations related to his work as Jonathan’s media adviser.
“He said that the details of the relations with the media are never documented,” the EFCC sources said.
Abati was not charged or convicted. A few days after his arrest, the EFCC released him on administrative bail.