EFCC Raids Obanikoro’s Home, Ex-Minister On The Run

Former minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro said he went to study and after the study he would come and face EFCC. He has since graduated but has not developed the liver to come back. Lol!

Operatives of the EFCC on Tuesday afternoon stormed his house in the Ikoyi area of Lagos. They seized some vital documents, vehicles and other valuables.

Sources in the anti-corruption agency disclose that the raid was connected with several allegations of fraud that were levelled against Obanikoro and his two sons – Babajide and Gbolahan.

According to Puch, the operatives stormed the house, located at Layi Ajayi Bembe Street in Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, where they searched the entire premises.

The commission had said it traced N4.75bn to a company, Sylvan McNamara Limited, in which Obanikoro’s sons allegedly have interest.

The money was allegedly paid in several tranches into the company’s account with Diamond Bank from the Office of the National Security Adviser account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

According to the EFCC, all the transfers were made between June and December 2014, a period that coincided with the preparation for and the conduct of the Ekiti State governorship election.

Giving a breakdown of how the money was paid, an EFCC source said N200m was transferred into Sylvan McNamara’s account on June 5, 2014, while N2bn was also wired into the account from the CBN/ Imprest main account on June 16, 2014.

Another transfer of N700m hit the account on July 7, 2014, while N1bn was credited to the account on July 30, 2014.

Other transfers included N160m on August 8, 2014; N225m on August 22, 2014; N200m on November 14, 2014 and N200m on December 5, 2014.

Both Gbolahan and Babajide Obanikoro, sources disclosed, as directors of the company, were also signatories to its account until 2014 when one Olalekan Ogunseye was made the sole signatory to the account.

EFCC sources disclosed that the payments to the company from the office of the NSA, Sambo Dasuki, were made without any contract.

A detective at the EFCC said, “It is true that we searched the house of Obanikoro. It was part of investigations into the N4.7bn paid into his sons’ account.”