The All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for an investigation into reports connecting internet fraudster Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi to chieftains of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The spokesman of APC, Yekini Nabena in a statement said: “The EFCC, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and other sister agencies must investigate money laundering reports linking some PDP leaders and financiers to the Dubai-based international criminal ring.
“That the PDP leadership turned Dubai into their ‘Strategic’ meeting place ahead of the 2019 general elections in Nigeria and ‘Hushpuppi’s’ affinity with the PDP leadership is not mere coincidence.”
Hushpuppi, Olalekan Jacob Ponle, also known as Woodberry and 10 other partners were nabbed while sleeping at their houses in Dubai by Dubai Police in an operation tagged Fox Hunt 2.
After their investigation, Dubai Police said the gang was responsible for Dh1.6 billion (about N169 billion) fraud involving over 1.9 million victims. Also, Items worth N15.845 billion (Dh 150 million) were seized.
Furthermore,13 luxury cars worth N2.640 billion (Dh 25 million), 21 laptops, 47 smartphones, 15 memory storage devices, 5 external hard drives and 800,000 emails of potential victims were recovered from the gang.
Before Hushpuppi was arrested by the Dubai Police, he was pictured with a number of PDP stalwarts like former Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Dino Melaye; former House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara and other politicians.
Nabena reiterated that the reports connecting Hushpuppi to the PDP were not coincidences and challenged the PDP to mention the ‘services’ that Hushpuppi rendered to them.
Nabena said: “While relevant authorities investigate the nature of their relationship and business partnership, we also challenge the PDP leadership to do same by opening up on the nature of the relationship, particularly the kind of services the arrested ‘Hushpuppi’ provided them.”
