The Inspector General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) on Monday evening arrested Adeyemi Abayomi Abiodun, an employee of Mr Drew Povey who runs Iva Valley Bookshop at the Labour House in Abuja.
SaharaReporters learnt that the police team picked up Abiodun at around 6 pm on Monday.
“The Intelligence Response Team picked up Adeyemi Abayomi Abiodun around 6 pm on Monday. Adeyemi Abayomi Abiodun is the employee of Mr Drew Povey at the Iva Valley Bookshop,” a source privy to the incident told SaharaReporters.
“In fact, they picked him up through a third party. They had been trailing him since yesterday morning and then released the first two people they got hold of after they saw him. They went away with his laptop.”
The source told SaharaReporters that the security operatives also went away with the wife’s phone.
Last Wednesday, August 21, 2024, SaharaReporters reported that the police had raided the home of Drew Povey, owner of Iva Valley Books, in connection with the #EndBadGovernance protests and alleged terrorism financing.
Earlier that Wednesday, SaharaReporters reported a similar raid on the home of Stars of Nations Schools Principal, Helen Batubo, at Serenity Estate, Karshi, in Nasarawa State, also related to the protests.
SaharaReporters reported on Tuesday that the school administrator had been invited by the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Department of Force Intelligence over allegations of “criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion, and cybercrime.”
The invitation, detailed in an official letter, required the school principal to appear for an interview on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, at the IRT Complex in Guzape District, Abuja.
SaharaReporters on Tuesday reported that Batubo is the step-daughter of Mr. Drew who owns the school and runs the bookshop on 2nd floor of Nigeria Labour Congress’ Labour House in Abuja.
SaharaReporters learnt that on Wednesday morning, police officers broke into the home Drew Povey.
In addition, SaharaReporters also discovered that Abiodun was among those whose bank accounts were recently frozen following a court order.
On Sunday, SaharaReporters reported that a Federal High Court in Abuja had issued an order freezing the bank accounts of 32 individuals and companies allegedly linked to the #EndBadGovernance protests.
The court’s ruling, delivered by Justice Emeka Nwite, was in response to an ex-parte motion filed by the Inspector-General of Police’s counsel, Ibrahim Mohammed.
The order also directed banks to arrest and detain account holders or anyone found transacting business on the affected accounts, pending investigation and prosecution.
Mr Nwite, who granted the motion dated and filed on August 20, directed the banks to contact the Nigeria Police Force through the telephone numbers: 08035179870 and 07032449912 as soon as arrest is made.
“That the banks are hereby directed by this honourable court to issue details of the account package(s) and to place a Post-No-Debit (PND) on the accounts, disable the ATM while allowing inflow into the said accounts as from the date of this court order,” the judge declared.
The account numbers affected include 4010073491 (Fidelity Bank), 1255130019 (Access Bank), 0006084167 (Abbey Mortgage Multipurpose Bank Plc), 0821931299 (FCMB), 1012007655 (FCMB), 0000575573 (A AG Mortgage Bank Plc), 1007871587 (UBA), 2037117333 (UBA), 5421031104 (ECOBANK), 0024541201 (Union Bank), 1022899050 (UBA), 8755008491 (Branch International Services Ltd), 5630208636 (Fidelity), and 4936992542 (Fairmoney Microfinance Bank).
Others are 8755008499 (Branch International Financial Services Ltd), 2088228208 (UBA), 2115678044 (Zenith Bank), 3041823452 (First Bank), 1011828445 (New Edge Finance), 3024402748 (First Bank), 0161502459 (GTBank), 0040580047 (Access Bank), 0250291788 (Wema Bank), 6112464260 (Branch International Financial Services Ltd), 1000774097 (Sparkle Microfinance Bank Ltd), 3434649965 (Fairmoney Microfinance Bank), 2013556714 (KUDA Microfinance Bank), 3104962864 (Polaris Bank), 6112464267 (Branch International Finance Services Lit), 8137051249 (OPAY) and 8137051249 (PALMPAY).
The Inspector General of Police, in the application marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1219/2024, listed PA.LIN.HO Global Service Ltd, Innocent Angel Lovet Chinyere Nkiru, Obidient Movement Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Innocent Angel Lovet, Great Communicators Champion Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd as the 1st to 5th respondents respectively
Others include Great Communicators Champion Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, Opaluwa Eleojo Bob-Simon, NUEE State Chapter, Adeyemi Abiodun Abayomi, Adaramoye Michael Tobiloba, Popoola Festus as 6th to 11th respondents respectively.
Mr Mohammed, in his four-ground argument, said the accounts as contained in the schedule in respect of which reliefs sought are subject of investigation and are reasonably suspected to be warehousing proceeds of unlawful activities or fraud.
“If there is any dealing with the account by way of withdrawal or transfer to another account by the persons under investigation/investigator and the persons that have absolute power to deal with the account will render nugatory any consequential order(s) which the court may make at the conclusion of this application,” he said.
The Inspector-General of Police’s counsel alleged that the frozen accounts were utilized for illicit activities, including criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, cyberbullying, and cyberstalking.
He claimed that funds were unlawfully transferred into these accounts, which are now linked to accused individuals who are currently at large.
“That the accused persons were involved in hosting another country’s flag in order to undermine the sovereignty of Nigerian state,” he added.
In the affidavit in support of the motion ex-parte, Gregory Woji, a detective attached to Force Criminal Investigation Department, deposed that preliminary investigation revealed that some suspects arrested were recruited by some financiers to cause mayhem and destroyed life and property,
Mr Woji said preliminary investigation further revealed that the financiers were sending money to recruit the indigents and other vulnerable individuals to carry banners and overthrow a democratically elected government.
Further preliminary investigation, according to the counsel, has uncovered that certain foreign nationals played a key role in the reprehensible acts of treasonable felony and terrorism financing in Nigeria.
He stated that the actions of the accused individuals are tantamount to criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, cyberstalking, and cyberbullying, and are therefore punishable offenses.
Sources told SaharaReporters that the bookshop was opened in 2017 on a not-for-profit basis.
A source said, “The NLC provided the office space rent free and all remaining costs, including the wages of the administrator, were covered by the manager.
“The aim was to provide books at a modest price for both trade unionists and members of civil society organisations. Many of the books were fairly used and brought by the manager on his trips between London and Abuja.
“The modest turnover of books was supplemented through the running of a business centre. Most of the customers were pensioners. They required copies of documents to be presented to the Trust Fund pension company who share the building with the NLC.”
“The bookshop operated completely openly. In the first few years, a banner was displayed on the railings by the entrance to Labour House. Posters are prominently displayed by the entrance to the bookshop on the second floor. Book stalls were also provided for trade union meetings at Labour House and some outside conferences. A bookstall was arranged for the May Day celebrations in Eagle Square for at least the last two years,” one of the sources said.
The bookshop along with other rooms in the building was recently raided by security agents, who carted away some materials, claiming that the materials were used to incite and organise the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protests in the country.
“They removed all the books from a bookshop that had been operating openly over the last seven years. The books covered topics such as trade unionism, environmentalism, feminism and included several novels,” a source told SaharaReporters.
According to one of the sources, Iva Valley Books has “firmly stated that such accusations have no basis in fact”.
