The person alleged to be the brain behind the threat to the life of former Vice President and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has been arrested.
He is one 43 years old Augustus Akpan who hails from Edemaya Village, Ikot Abasi local government areas of Akwa Ibom State.
Akpan also threatened to rape and kill the wife and daughters of the former vice president.
The condition he gave was that Atiku should drop his presidential ambition against President Muhammadu Buhari
Atiku raised the alarm recently, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the police to save his life and those of his family members.
He reported that the threat came as text messages to him, his wife and daughters.
In the text message, the suspect warned that Atiku’s plane would be blown up, his wife and daughters would be raped if he refused to abandon his presidential ambition.
However, following the complaints, the police moved in and the brain behind the threat was uncovered.
Akpan was arrested at the Toll Gate area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Lagos State by the IGP Intelligence Response Team, IRT, operatives led by DCP Abba Kyari.
He was said to be on his way out of the country when he was arrested.
He was said to have confessed to committing the crime, saying that he resorted to the threat when he could not extort money from Atiku.
The police said he confessed to warning Atiku not to run in the 2019 presidential election against President Muhammadu Buhari just to divert attention.
The confessed fraudster, it was reported, is fluent in English, Ibibio, Russian and Portuguese languages.
The police said the phone and SIM card he used to perpetrate the crime were retrieved from him.
He was paraded by the police on Wednesday.
