Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) raided the jet that brought back Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to Nigeria.
Paul Ibe, Atiku’s spokesman, confirmed the incident to TheCable on Sunday afternoon
It was gathered the private jet conveying Atiku from Dubai landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at 1:30am, into the waiting arms of the security operatives.
Sources in the know of the incident told TheCable the DSS operatives searched Atiku and the jet, alongside officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service and Nigeria Customs Service.
TheCable understands the combined security team, who said they had an arrest warrant to search the PDP presidential candidate, were looking for implicating items including foreign currencies.
They were said to have stripped everything including the luggage and had also searched the pilot and co-pilot.
It was, however, gathered the operatives found nothing implicating during the operation.
Writing via his Twitter handle, Atiku said the search was aimed at intimidating him.
“I arrived to Abuja this morning to a search by agents of the state, aimed at intimidating me and my staff,” he wrote.
“I am committed to building a Nigeria where no citizen is intimidated by agents of state who are paid to protect them.”
