The police have returned all the documents and money removed during a search of the Abuja residence of Senator Danjuma Goje representing Gombe Central.
Goje, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, was governor of Gombe State from 2003 to 2011.
The sums of $19,000, N18million, 9,400 Saudi Riyal and documents were on Thursday returned in compliance with the directive from the National Assembly to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, that the items be returned.
Policemen searched the 64-year-old’s house last Friday allegedly based on information that illegal items were being moved into the building.
Goje, during plenary section on Wednesday, claimed the police took the 2017 budget documents and some cash after the raid.
He added that due to the removal of the budget that works on the budget would now be delayed.
But in a statement released early Thursday by Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Moshood Jimoh, the police said Goje’s claim was misleading and deliberately made to cast them in bad light.
Jimoh said the raid police action was professionally and lawfully carried out. He confirmed that cash, laptop and other documents were indeed seized during the raid.
He said none of the seized documents had anything to do with budget, but other matters, including business and political concerns and a document on how former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State allegedly plotted the murder of a cleric, Sheikh Jafaru.
Giving the basis for the raid, the spokesperson disclosed that police action followed intelligence available to the force that Goje had huge cash, suspected to be proceeds of corruption at his home.
