His lawyer, Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie, was arrested by the EFCC last month for allegedly laundering $2 million before the 2019 presidential election.
His son-in-law, Babalele Abdullahi, also the finance director of Atiku Group of Companies, was also arrested on Saturday, March 2, for undisclosed reasons.
Atiku took to his Twitter account (@atiku) early on Monday, March 4, to accuse the government of persecuting those close to him.
"My son in law and lawyer have been detained, one for 3 weeks and the other recently. They are paying the price for supporting me.
"I urge those now persecuting them to remember that a government's mandate is to pursue peace and justice for all, and not just those who support them," the former vice president tweeted.
In an earlier statement signed by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, he said the arrest is an attempt by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to intimidate him to concede defeat.
Atiku lost the February 23 presidential election to Buhari by 3.9 million votes, but he has rejected the result and vowed to contest it in court, branding it as the worst election in Nigeria's history.
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![Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State [NAN]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'300'%20height%3D'172'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State [NAN]")
