The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday said
it had traced some funds to the bank account of the Ekiti State Governor, Mr.
Ayodele Fayose, and the account of a company, belonging to the two sons of a
former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro.
The commission said it had recovered evidence of the alleged
illegal transactions from the banks.
The bank tellers and other relevant documents, which were
made available to The PUNCH, showed that the alleged scam took place between
April 4, 2014, and December 15, 2014, when a total of N4.745bn
was paid into
the Diamond Bank account of Sylvan McNamara.
However, the company, on May 7, 2012, passed a resolution
that it should open an account at Diamond Bank and have the following persons
as signatories – Gbolahan Obanikoro, Babajide Obanikoro, Ikenna Ezekwe and
Theresa Matuluko.
Babajide and Gbolahan are the sons of Musiliu Obanikoro, a
former minister of State for Defence.
According to Punch, an agent of the commission further
revealed that about N2bn from the money was withdrawn by the Obanikoro sons and
then flown to the Akure Airport, Ondo, for onward transfer to Ekiti State.
While presenting the flight document, the detective said,
“On June 12, 2014, barely 10 days to the Ekiti State governorship election,
Obanikoro and a man, who claimed to be his Aide-de-Camp by the name of A. O.
Adewale, chartered a private jet belonging to OAS Helicopters.
“About N724,500,000 was conveyed on the plane with tail
number N638MA. The plane was an HS125 jet, operated by Okin Travellers, a
subsidiary of Elizade. The plane landed at Akure at 9.38am and then went back
to Lagos to get an extra N494,900,000 and landed at Akure at 5.57pm.
“Obanikoro handed the money over to one Abiodun Agbele,
otherwise known as Abey, an associate of Fayose. Officials of Zenith Bank
arrived at the tarmac in a bullion van to convey all the cash to the bank’s
vault, located at 13 Alagbaka Estate, Akure.”
The detective, who presented bank tellers, said Abey gave
the bank instructions at different times to pay the money into Fayose’s Zenith
Bank account even after the elections.
He added, “Abbey directed the bank to pay N137m into the
account of Ayodele Fayose with number 1003126654 and Bank Verification Number
22338867502. The bank teller dated June 26, 2014, was filled by Abbey with
teller number 0556814.
“Abbey directed the bank to transfer N118,760,000 to the
same account and paid in N50m cash into Fayose’s account.
“On April 7, 2015, several months later, Fayose personally
moved N300m to his fixed deposit account at Zenith Bank with number 9013074033
with the same BVN. The account is domiciled at 15 Olusola Abiona Street,
Estate, Alapere, Ketu, Lagos.”
The source added that on the instructions of Fayose, Abbey
deposited N100m in the account of Spotless Investment Limited, a hotel, which
is owned by Fayose and his wife, Olayemi.
Abbey, who was identified as the owner of a firm, De
Privateer Limited, paid N100m into the Zenith Bank account of Spotless
Investment Limited with number 1010170969 on June 17, 2014.
He also paid N219,490,000 and N300m on June 18, 2014 and
June 19, 2014 respectively into his own company account with Zenith Bank marked
1013835889 while he kept a cash of N260m from the original funds.
The anti-graft agency had some days ago frozen Gov. Ayodele
Fayose Zenith bank account.
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