Former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, was apprehended on Wednesday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, shortly after arriving from Enugu aboard a chartered flight, in a dramatic development that marks the culmination of a months-long pursuit by anti-corruption authorities.

Newsworld Media Network gathered that Nnaji was taken into custody at the airport and is expected to be handed over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for interrogation in connection with allegations that he forged his academic certificates — the same scandal that forced his resignation from the Federal Executive Council last year.

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The ICPC had been tracking the former minister for some time, with reports indicating that he had repeatedly failed to honour the commission’s invitations for questioning. The agency had previously been reported to be considering declaring him wanted, before a court stepped in to issue a formal order for his arrest.

Nnaji had, however, pushed back against the mounting pressure, publicly denying in June that any court had ordered his arrest and insisting that he was neither in hiding nor evading law enforcement. He subsequently appealed the arrest order in a move his camp appeared to hope would buy more time, but Wednesday’s events at the Abuja airport suggest those efforts did not succeed in keeping the authorities at bay.

The former minister’s troubles date back to investigations that uncovered alleged discrepancies in his academic credentials, ultimately compelling him to step down from President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet. Since then, he had been the subject of sustained ICPC scrutiny, even as he reportedly nursed ambitions of seeking the governorship of Enugu State.

No official statement had been issued by the ICPC at the time of filing this report, and Nnaji’s legal team had yet to publicly respond to Wednesday’s arrest.