FORMER MINISTER DENIES FLEEING TO DUBAI

A former Minister of Transport in the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, Idris Umar, has denied media reports suggesting that he has properties in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates.
Mr. Umar also denied stories that he had relocated to the gulf nation and was taking refuge there.
President Muhammdu Buhari had during his recent to the UAE, signed a number of bilateral agreements with the government of the UAE, one of which will see Nigerians who looted the nation’s resources losing them to the federal government.
Dubai is a choice location for Nigerian officials who stash away public funds there, investing in top-of-the-range properties.
One of the agreements signed between Nigeria and the UAE will facilitate the deportation of people suspected of stealing from the nation’s treasury and also the repatriation of ill-gotten wealth.
Following the agreements, which, analysts say, have caused panic among the Nigerian elite, Mr. Umar was named in media reports among those likely to be affected.
The former Minister, however, said in a release issued issued by his media aide, Innocent Ebirim, that the former Senator “does not own any property in Dubai and he is in Abuja at his usual place of abode and has no reason whatsoever to hide in faraway Dubai”.