Obanikoro
Former Minister of State Defence has confessed yesterday while he submitted himself to the Anti-graft Angency, EFCC, of giving part of N4.745billion Made Available By Office of the NSA to Ekiti State Governor, Fayose.
Former Minister of State for Defence, Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro has disclosed how he gave Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, part of the N4.745billion made available to him by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
The said cash was transferred into the company, Sylva Mcnamara within seven months in 2014. obanikoro, who is still in detention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, said N2.23billion was transferred to Fayose.
While $5,377,000 was given to Fayose in cash, N1.3billion was received by the governor’s associate, Mr. Abiodun Agbele.
According to a report by The Nation, Obanikoro admitted that the N1.3billion was flown to Akure airport in two charterred flights for delivery to Agbele.
Obanikoro, however said he is not the owner of Sylva Mcnamara that was used to transfer the funds to Fayose.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Mr. James Onoja (SAN), the ex-Minister was confronted with a petition from ONSA which was dated November 28, 2015.
The petition was titled “Payment to companies with no contract awards or approval.”
He said having gone through the petition, he discovered that Sylva Mcnamara was No. 78 on the list of firms being investigated having “collected the aggregate sum of N4,685,000,000 between April 4, 2014 and November 13, 2014.
A source told the newspaper that “the sum of N2.2billion was transferred to Sylva Mcnamara for onward transfer to Mr. Ayodele Fayose on the instruction of the NSA.
“The sum of N1.3billion cash was brought in a bullion van by Diamond Bank on the instruction of the NSA.
“In addition, the sum of N60million was converted to dollars at the rate of N168 per dollar and altogether the sum of $5,377,000 was handed over in cash by me to Mr. Fayose while the N1.3billion was received by Mr. Fayose’s associate, Mr. Abiodun Agbele in the presence of my Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Lt. Adewale who also accompanied them to the bank along with the bank officials.
“I didn’t interact with the bank officials. I called Fayose before the funds were handed over to Mr. Abiodun Agbele. I spoke to Fayose with my phone at Akure airport.”
Obanikoro said he “took off with the first flight with part of the money while the second flight brought the remaining funds to Akure local airport and I directed that it should be handed over to the same person.”
The source added: “He told us that he is “ not the owner of the company in question but introduced the owner, Mr. Kareem Taiwo to the NSA, Mr. Sambo Dasuki when the threat of Boko Haram became more visible in Lagos.
“He said the government wanted to incorporate local input into the intelligence gathering and prevention of terrorist attack on Lagos and the South-West in general.”
