Heavily armed security operatives on Wednesday raided the residence of a former vice president, Namadi Sambo, in Kaduna.

The operatives are believed to have come from State Security Service, SSS, and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC.

An ICPC operative in the North-West zonal office of the agency in Kaduna, confirmed the raid to our reporter.

“Yes, we carried out a raid of the former Vice President Sambo’s house around 3:00pm today (Wednesday) with other agencies,” the operative said but declined to give further details because he has no official permission to speak to journalists.

“You can contact our headquarters in Abuja for details,” he added.

Umar Sani, former media aide to Mr. Sambo, who also confirmed Wednesday’s raid said it was the fifth by security operatives on the house.

He accused Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress of allegedly intimidating people to scare possible contenders in 2019.

“This is not the first time they are searching the house. They have been coming to search the house on several occasions,” Mr. Sani said.

“Today they came with a court order and gave a copy of the court order to the Chief Security Officer in the house.

“After they finished the search, they wrote at the back page of the court order that they gave to the CSO that they didn’t find anything and they left.

“So we are not surprised because it has now become a routine activity,” Mr. Sani said.

The operatives arrived the newly renovated residence of the former vice president at No. 1 Alimi road in Kaduna, around 3:07 p.m., conducted their search and left at about 5:28 p.m.

“The heavily armed team came in a white Toyota Hilux, a Toyota Corolla and a Coaster bus, a Toyota Hilux van and a dark coloured Toyota Corolla car.

“The Corolla was parked outside as the operatives numbering up to ten conducted the search within the residence while the others waited outside,” a resident of the neighbourhood who witnessed the raid said.

A witness also told our reporter that some operatives blocked the major road leading to the residence to wade off motorists and other passers-by plying the road while other operatives went‎ into the residence.

Mr. Sambo served as deputy to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 to 2015.

PT