- As Fayose’s men go into hiding over N4.7b Poll Fraud
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has traced N1.310bn to some company accounts allegedly belonging to a former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
The money was said to be part of the N4.7bn allegedly disbursed by a former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, and his two sons, Gbolahan and Babajide.
The N4.7bn was said to have emanated from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser in 2014 and then transferred to the Diamond Bank account of Sylvan McNamara, a company in which Obanikoro’s sons are the signatories to its bank account.
Omisore, who has since been declared wanted by the anti-graft agency, allegedly received the funds in four tranches from Sylvan McNamara between July and August 2014, a few weeks before the Osun State governorship election which he lost.
A document detailing the transaction showed that the money was paid into three company accounts allegedly belonging to Omisore.
A detective at the anti-graft agency explained, “On July 9, 2014, N150m was paid into the bank account of Sawanara at First Bank. On August 1, 2014, N300m was paid into Sawanara Limited.
“On August 8, 2014, about N160m was paid into the bank account of Fimex Gilt Limited domiciled at UBA. On the day of the election, August 9, 2014, N350m was paid into the First Bank account of Metropolitan Consortium.”
Omisore had, however, denied receiving any money from the ONSA.
Speaking in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, on Wednesday, Omisore said the Federal Government was out to nail him and other members of the opposition at all cost.
He said, “I don’t know Dasuki from Adam. I never went to his office. The Federal Government is just using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to victimise and embarrass me.
“They had said I received N600m, they later said N1.9bn, now they are saying n1.3bn. Which of these figures do they want to pin on me? They have kept shifting the goalposts at will.”
The former deputy governor had also sued the EFCC for N10bn and prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to grant him an order of perpetual injunction restraining the “defendants (the EFCC) either by themselves, their agents, officers, servants, privies or otherwise however called from making such or similar defamatory publication of and concerning the plaintiff (Omisore) to any person or persons.”
Meanwhile, the sons of Obanikoro on Wednesday shunned the invitation of the EFCC.
The anti-graft agency had last week stormed the home of Gbolahan and Babajide and seized the property located at 10 Mojisola Street, off Banana Island Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
In the meantime, detectives were yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, to arrest some suspects in the N4.7billion arms cash probe.
But the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) men found nobody. Their targets were said to have gone into hiding in the palatial Oke Ayoba Government House.
“They are all holed up in the place but they can’t hide forever,” an EFCC source said last night.
But Fayose threatened to name others involved in the transfer of money into his account “if they cannot stand by what they did because of the threat from the EFCC.
He accused Zenith Bank of succumbing to intimidation. But, according to a source, the bank reported the “suspicious transactions” of N4.745billion by Fayose’s associate, Abiodun Agbele, to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
An EFCC source, who pleaded not to be named, said Zenith Bank reported the N1.219billion suspicious transactions by Musiliu Obanikoro and Agbele to the NFIU.
“We have been on this case for a while. From the facts available, Zenith Bank reported the transactions to NFIU,” the source added.
“We have intelligence report that some of these people wanted in connection with the ongoing investigation have been moved to the Government House in Ado-Ekiti.”
On the reaction of Fayose to the EFCC fact-sheet, the source said: “We have nothing to react to at all because we have put the incontrovertible facts in the public domain.
“Let Fayose go and defend himself. We will not take up issues with him any longer. And having shifted his defence to Zenith Bank, it is the duty of the media to hear from the bank.”
The EFCC has traced about N4.75 billion of the diverted $2.1 billion arms cash to Fayose and former Minister of State (Defence) Musiliu Obanikoro. Fayose accused his bankers of succumbing to what he called “EFCC intimidation” in a bid to nail him (Fayose).
He claimed that the electoral expenses for his 2014 Ekiti poll victory were funded by Zenith Bank Plc, fundraising, donations from friends and associates as well as sales of campaign souvenirs.
Fayose said: “I have no financial transaction whatsoever with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) under Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro either by cash, cheque or electronic transfer.”
On how he came about the funds for his election, Fayose alleged that he was invited by the management of Zenith Bank, which he claimed nominated an officer to manage the account.
The governor said: “The management of Zenith Bank, which majorly funded my election, called me to a meeting where I was assured that fund will be provided for my election. I was asked to nominate a trusted ally to be related with and I nominated Mr Abiodun Agbele.
“All the payments into Abiodun Agbele’s account domiciled in Zenith Bank were directly from Zenith Bank. In actual fact, the account was opened by Zenith Bank hurriedly at that time and Abiodun Agbele’s identity card which ought to have been collected before the account was opened was only collected last week in the bank’s desperation to perfect the account, obviously after submitting to the intimidation and harassment of the EFCC.
“I wish to state further that if it becomes evidently clear that those who willingly provided money for my election can no longer stand by what they did, maybe because of threat from the EFCC, I will not hesitate to name names.”
Punch with additional report from Upshot
