SaharaReporters has reliably learned that Captain Sagir Koli, the whistle blower who exposed a plan by high-level officers of the Nigerian Army as well as top officials of the Peoples Democratic Party to rig a governorship election in Ekiti State, has returned to Nigeria.
SaharaReporters exclusively published audiotapes recorded by Captain Koli in which the PDP’s governorship candidate, Ayo Fayose, the then Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, former Defense Minister Musiliu Obanikoro, former Governor Iyiola Omisore of Osun State, and a military officer, Brigadier General Aliyu Momoh, discussed strategies for rigging the governorship election in Ekiti State.
Captain Koli had to flee Nigeria once PDP top officials as well as the military realized that he had secretly taped conversations of the highly criminal conspiracy to intimidate voters in Ekiti State and to thwart the reelection bid of then Governor Kayode Fayemi. The tapes, which revealed the PDP officials trying to blackmail General Momoh whilst also offering him financial inducement, created a political scandal known as Ekitigate.
After the whistleblower eluded the ferocious military and PDP dragnet that sought to capture and punish him, military authorities detained his younger brother and harassed other members of his family.
A source at Aso Rock told SaharaReporters that Captain Koli had a brief audience with President Muhammadu Buhari upon his return to Nigeria.
The Nigerian military source also established a board of inquiry to “investigate, among other things, alleged malpractices and involvement of military personnel in Ekiti and Osun States’ Gubernatorial Elections in 2014.”
The army recently redeployed Brigadier General Momoh, the lead military player in the Ekiti electoral fraud, to the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in Minna, Niger State. General Momoh’s new post is seen as a demotion, said an army source.
SaharaReporters was not able to determine the exact location of Captain Koli in Nigeria. However, our military source disclosed that the army was in touch with the captain.