An Abuja home of former President
Goodluck Jonathan has been burgled,
PREMIUM Times exclusively reports.
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.
It was 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
Str!pped 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. 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 Str!pped 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.
It could not be ascertained 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 an 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.
“The trader followed him to the residence
where he met two other policemen, an
inspector and a sergeant. They convinced
him that the items were part of gifts to
them.”
The source said that it was not long before
he noticed that the stream of transaction
had no end, as the Sergeant Musa continued
to invite the trader to the residence to pick
up fresh items.
“At a point, the trader became scared when
he suspected foul play and told Sergeant
Musa that he was no longer interested in
the transaction,” he said.
