London
Metropolitan Police has confirmed the arrest of Mrs. Florence Ajimobi,
wife of Oyo state Governor, over money laundering.
The Met
confirmation came this evening following an enquiry by P.M.NEWS on the
story making the rounds that Mrs. Ajimobi was arrested in London, with
the sum of 400,000 pounds and thousands of US dollars, valued at
N500million.
The Met simply said ‘Yes’ to our question, seeking confirmation about the arrest.
However, the organization declined to give further information about the matter, citing a UK law.
“I
am sorry, we are unable to disclose any information to you under the
Data Protection Act,” an officer in the MET Lambeth Office responded.
There was anxiety in the government circles of Nigeria’s Oyo State this morning over the arrest of Mrs. Ajimobi.
Reports
on the web and some blogs claimed that the woman was arrested two weeks
ago by the London Metropolitan Police on her 52nd trip to the UK since
her husband became governor 17 months ago.
London Met Police has
not issued any statement about her alleged arrest. And her name drew
blank in a search of the Met Police website by P.M.NEWS.
The
unconfirmed reports claimed that Governor Abiola Ajimobi has had to fly
to the UK to get her bailed. Mrs. Ajimobi has a North London address in
Golders Green and ordinarily visits the UK.
So far, the Oyo state
government has kept mute over this story. And the disappearance of
Governor Ajimobi from Ibadan, the capital for some two days has further
given some ammunition to the purveyors of the news about his wife,
styled The First Lady of Oyo state.
Governor Ajimobi was in office today, but bearers of the tale about the wife, have been unrelenting.
Mrs. Ajimobi’s personal staff at Agodi have also not issued denials of any sort.
Miss
Yemisi Dada, Special Assistant on Media to Chief Mrs. Ajimobi on a
phone interaction at exactly 8:11am claimed that she was not in Ibadan
at the time of the telephone conversation adding that she was not aware
of such development.
“I cannot talk about that. I am not aware of
what you are talking about and besides, I am not in Ibadan right now.
Meanwhile, I will find out the correct situation and get back to you as
soon as possible. Thanks”.