For over five hours on Friday night, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ransacked the palatial mansion of the founder of the
Jonathan/Sambo Youth Support
Movement (JYSM) also known as
Jonathan Youth Vanguard, Mr. George Turnah, carting away several documents before leaving.
The country home of Turner, situated in Kolo town, Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, a few minutes’ drive from the former President’s Otuoke
abode, was raided by the officials of the anti-graft agency who were in search of incriminating evidence against the 33- year-old businessman and politician.
However, Turnah, who bagged a
Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) award in 2011 during the erstwhile Jonathan administration, was said to
have escaped just minutes before the security operatives arrived.
It wasn’t particularly clear for what reason the EFCC was after the former aspirant to the position of the Peoples’
Democratic Party’s National Vice
Chairman for South-south at the party’s botched convention last year, but he was said to have handled several contracts for the Jonathan government and as a former Special Assistant to two
former Managing Directors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
A reliable security source who preferred to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak on the issue, confirmed to THISDAY in Yenagoa, that over 40 operatives from the mobile unit
of the Nigeria Police Force, the military and the Department of State Services (DSS) accompanied the EFCC operatives on the mission. “I learnt they were
about 40, not hundred like you
mentioned. But the operation was last night (Friday), though I cannot say what the operatives found in the house”, he said.
The operation, it was gathered started at about 5pm and effectively ended at about 10 pm, before the EFCC officials exited the town several documents, including cheque books, source told THISDAY in Kolo yesterday.
A separate source within the villa,
speaking with our correspondent upon enquiries about the politician who has also indicated his interest in running for the Bayelsa State Governorship election in 2019, said, “Oga is not around. You cannot see him now”.
Pressed further, he continued, “they (EFCC) came here last night at about five O’ clock in the evening and left around
10pm. They scattered everywhere, but they did not break any door. They found all the keys to the doors and opened them. I can’t say whether they saw money, but they took away plenty documents and cheque books used by Oga (Turnah)”.
He added that the ex-President’s ally, who became highly influential during the last government, left the house just a
few minutes before the arrival of the operatives, admitting that he might have been tipped off by some security operatives too.
Ironically, the 2009 graduate of law from the Niger Delta University, (NDU), who is currently being hunted by the EFCC, did his National Youth Service Corps
(NYSC) programme in Abuja with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
When THISDAY visited the palatial house in Kolo yesterday, a close aide of the businessman /politician said he wasn’t
around to attend to enquiries. Both his telephone lines were also switched off.
Two men later identified as the
Divisional Police Officer, (DPO), in charge of the area and his lieutenant, in whose jurisdiction the raid took place, was also
seen in the morning going into the palatial building at the time THISDAY visited.
Turnah was said to have become close to the first family during his active unionism days in 2004 when he was elected the Secretary General, National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Rivers/Bayelsa States Joint Campus Committee, popularly known as JCC.
From there, he became Vice President, National Affairs of the National Association of Nigeria Student (NANS), a position he held from 2007 to 2008.
The owner of el-Godams and Celtic Pride group of companies, two companies he used in doing business, gained prominence as one of the founders of the Jonathan/Sambo Youth Support
Movement (JYSM) also known as
Jonathan Youth Vanguard, which
mobilised youth support for the
aspiration of his boss, President
Jonathan during his elections.
Calls to the EFCC spokesperson, Mr.
Wilson Uwujaren, were not picked up, neither was a text message sent to him replied at the time of going to press.
