The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Saturday challenged the Presidency to speak out on the reported arrest of President Muhammadu Buhari’s known confidant, Nasir Danu, at the Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom, for alleged passport scam and money laundering.

The PDP insisted that the silence by the Presidency on the matter since the report of Danu’s arrest and deportation is self-indicting, particularly given his reported confessions and alleged links to persons closely related to Mr. President.

The party made the demand in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, alleging that he was caught while allegedly ferrying stolen currencies for persons said to be close to the Presidency.

The party said that the Buhari Presidency should speak out on this huge scandal and allegations that Danu had been in the business of connecting the said close relation of the president with many oil contractors for alleged underhand deals through which billions of naira get frittered.

The PDP noted that this was beside allegations of being a front for scandalous contracts running into billions of naira from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, among other government agencies.

The party cautioned the Buhari Presidency to perish the thoughts of concealing this scandal saying it is already in the public domain with Nigerians demanding for investigations.

The PDP therefore charged the Buhari Presidency to immediately order an open investigation into the matter and expose those in this scandalous racket.

“Nigerians can now further see how the Buhari Presidency stinks. Our party therefore insists that for a government that always orchestrates claims of integrity and zero tolerance for corruption, it behoves on the Presidency to come clean as well as order an investigation into this huge allegation,” PDP stated.

Reports had claimed Danu was arrested at the Heathrow Airport in the UK, few days ago with a fake Malta Passport and more than £200,000.00 in cash.

One of the reports alleged that Danu had arrived the UK airport and queued up on the line with passengers holding EU passports.

The reported added that an immigration officer called Danu from the queue and his passport ran on the scanning machine, the passport could not be scanned as the security features on the passport returned invalid.

According to the report, the genuine document has been unlawfully altered in some ways. They substituted some pages, substituted a photograph and altered the personal details, replacing them with Danu.

Danu was immediately pulled over in a room at the airport while his carry-on bag was searched and a cash amount of over £200,000.00 found inside his bag. Upon cross-examination, according to the source, Danu told investigators that he paid $30,000.00 to an agent who helped him procure the Malta International Passport.

He also told investigators that he was carrying the cash to deliver to someone in UK. It is not immediately known if the huge cash was meant for the first lady, Aisha Buhari, who has been in London for almost three months now.

Danu also enjoys close ties with the First Lady, Aisha Buhari. He is the link man between the President’s wife and many oil contractors who seek favour from the first lady.

•Text (excluding headline): THISDAY.

Update news