- Authorities believed he was faking sickness that eventually killed him – source
- Withold burial announcement to family one week after
A diplomatic row is looming between Nigeria and Republic of Benin over the mysterious death of a Beninoise businessman, Jean Codo, in the custody of the Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Beninoise businessman, who was arrested and detained over an alleged €29 million scam, informed the EFCC of his failing health before his death, a Lagos-based news medium reported quoting a source, and adding; “but the agency didn’t heed to his request to be allowed to go and treat himself, despite never turning down their calls in the past.
“The anti-graft agency told him he was faking his illness. But they rushed him to Creek Hospital when they discovered it was more serious than first assumed,” Aledeh news reported.
Codo died in the hospital on the 21st of May. As at press time, his family is yet to be informed of his death, one week after.
The Beninoise died in Kirikiri Prison after been previously arraigned on a seven-count charge by the EFCC sometimes on the 13th of January 2019. He has since been in the custody of the EFCC after failing to meet the anti-graft agency’s strict bail conditions.
Codo, who, it was gathered, partly owned Transport and Ports Management System Limited, a Logistics company that works closely with the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), was arraigned by the EFCC on an alleged €29million fraud, before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court.
One of the counts read; “That you, Jean Codo and Transport and Port Management Systems Limited (TPMSL) sometime in 2010 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired to commit felony, to wit: stealing of about €29,000,000.00 (Twenty-Nine Million Euros), property of the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
He was initially arrested in early 2019 by the EFCC but his release was secured some days after.
