Police in London have arrested a disgraced Nigerian state governor on suspicion of money laundering, said a spokesperson for the British High Commission (embassy) on Friday.
Joshua Dariye was suspended as governor of the central Nigerian state of Plateau in May of this year after failing to control ethnic and religious violence which left hundreds dead.
On Thursday he was detained for questioning in London by the Metropolitan Police as part of a long ongoing investigation by British and Nigerian officers into corruption, the British diplomat said.
”He was arrested yesterday morning and questioned on money laundering allegations. He has now been released to re-appear. The arrest is part of an ongoing investigation in place since July last year,” he said.
Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair and Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo met last year and agreed to make cooperation against corruption and money-laundering a priority, he said.
British officers have since become regular visitors to Abuja to work with their Nigerian colleagues to unravel the often murky financial relations between citizens of the west African country and financial institutions in its former colonial ruler.
Dariye has been given unconditional police bail but is expected to return for future questioning, the spokesperson said.
Officials could not give details of the investigation, but Nigerian daily The Punch reported that British detectives had found two million pounds (3.58 million his flat).
In May, Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in Plateau State after a series of clashes between Muslim settlers and the region’s Christian farmers culminated in the massacre of at least 300 civilians in a rural market town.
The elected governor was much criticised at the time for being in London when the crisis erupted and being slow to return to put his state in order.
Obasanjo suspended him for six months and installed a former military administrator of the region to run the state with a broad mandate to restore order and prepare the return of more than 200 000 refugees. – Sapa-AFP